I don't know if many of you are aware of the biggest issue that dentists are facing in the state of Washington. It's a change that will be effective June 13 of this year, and if successful, will not only affect our net income dramatically, it will sooner or later catch up to you. It's only a matter of time.

Let me just share the cliff's notes with you. Washington Dental Service (WDS), a Delta Dental company, sent all dental providers a letter about a month and a half ago stating that in order to be more competitive, they are going to be dropping their reimbursements to dentists by 10 - 15%, effective June 13. They are also discontinuing their premier (non-PPO) service as well. Not only that, they have frozen fee increases for the past two years. WDS is the biggest dental insurance provider in the state; all state employees and all of Boeing have WDS, just to name two monstrously large groups who utilize WDS.

I don't want to get into all the anti-trust/collusion issues, legal fights, financial issues, many other repercussions, and overall difficulty many dentists here in Washington will face. I don't know how it will affect you, but I know it will at some point, probably sooner than you think. Don't kid yourself into thinking that your state will be immune - every insurance provider in the country is watching this case very closely.

I discussed the situation with many of my colleagues, which didn't really help my state of mind; we were all bitching and moaning about the same thing and how negatively this will affect us!

Then I discussed this with my wife, who had some incredibly wise insight into my "woe is me" dilemma. She asked me what I was going to do; I told her I didn't know and then she said, "Well, you will get what you focus on."

When change comes, whether it is through our initiative or not, we will always get what we focus on. Focus on CEREC, your CEREC will be more successful. Focus on being healthy, you will be more fit and have more energy. Focus on patient care, you get more thank yous in the mail. Focus on your family, great memories will happen.

Life is too short - let's focus on the things that make us happy!