By James Casey
Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — He’s putting the bite on cavities. Getting his teeth into dental health. The clichés could drop your jaw.
Nevertheless, state Rep. Steve Tharinger, has introduced a bill to create “a new generation of oral health care professionals” that he says could close the gap in tooth wellbeing for rural Washington residents.
Tharinger’s 24th District — which encompasses all of Jefferson and Clallam counties and most of Grays Harbor County — has too few dentists, period, too few of whom accept Apple Health (Medicaid), according to the Children’s Alliance.
A report by the Seattle-based nonprofit group said Tharinger’s House Bill 1421 would establish the mid-level designations of dental practitioner and dental hygiene practitioner — dentistry’s version of medicine’s nurse practitioners — to expand care and reduce cost.
The North Olympic Peninsula includes one of Washington’s eight federally designated dental-health professional shortage areas, the alliance said.
The idea faces resistance from the Washington State Dental Association, which has opposed it since it was introduced by state Rep. Eileen Cody, D-West Seattle, in 2004.
“They’re concerned whenever there’s an expansion of the scope of practice because the mid-levels would do things that now only dentists can do,” said Tharinger, a Democrat from Dungeness.
Offsetting their concerns, though, is Tharinger’s contention that dental practitioners could free full-fledged dentists “to focus on the procedures they are skilled at, what they do best.”
Similar legislation failed in the 2013 legislative session, where it met opposition from the association.
At that time, dentists told Cody’s House Health Care &Wellness Committee that it would put poor people — especially children — at risk from inadequately trained and poorly supervised mid-level providers.
It also would not deliver the promised savings, which proponents claimed could reach 50 percent but dentists testified would save at best 2 percent.
But Dr. Tom Locke, health officer for Jefferson County, said, “We have an oral health access crisis on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“We are not serving the need that exists for basic dental care, resulting in a significant amount of preventable suffering and disability. Dental therapists can help.”
In other action involving 24th District legislators:
■ Tharinger signed on as cosponsor of a bill granting payment parity to telemedicine providers — distant doctors who consult with local physicians and their patients via televised connections.
Twenty-one states make private insurance companies pay the same for telemedicine as for in-person services. Washington isn’t one of them, although the state provides parity under Apple Health.
The partnership between Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles and Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is a good example of the technology, Tharinger said.
“It has better health outcomes particularly for cardiac issues, psychiatric issues, even some cancer issues.”
In committee testimony last week, according to Tharinger, one doctor said, whereas he’d need a half-hour to get to a patient’s hospital bedside, he could be there via telemedicine in two minutes.
■ Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, Democrat of Sequim, introduced a bill giving a 60 percent tax break to new companies manufacturing products from composite materials. For details, see Peninsula Daily News’ report on composites issues on Page C1 of last Sunday’s editions.
■ Van De Wege’s legislation to make campaign disclosure regulation violations criminal offenses and his bill to outlaw “ticket bots” — computer programs that corner the market on popular sporting and entertainment events — both received committee hearings last week.
■ State Sen. Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam said his bill to divert some property crime offenders from prison proved so popular in committee that it attracted support from six Republicans. His bill trimming taxes for log truck drivers also made it through committee.
■ Clallam County’s legislators joined other coastal county representatives to meet with the Department of Natural Resources on the department’s harvest from state-owned forests.
“Mills are closing,” Tharinger said. “We feel that the forests need to be managed better or more actively for habitat and for the health of the forest so it’s not either/or, it’s just getting engaged.”
Environmentalist groups have threatened lawsuits if increased harvests are proposed, “but we don’t want to spend money on attorneys,” Tharinger said. “We want to spend money on forests.”
Hargrove added that a broad federal interim management strategy for marbled murrelet habitat remains to be adjusted before the state could firm up timber-harvest forecasts.
“That particular map is blocking out much larger areas than what they hope for in the final plan,” Hargrove said. “A lot of that area won’t be in the final analysis.”
The process, however, could last as long as a year, he said.
Jefferson and Clallam counties are represented in the part-time state Legislature by Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, the House majority whip; Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim; and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
Write Van De Wege and Tharinger at P.O. Box 40600 (Hargrove at P.O. Box 40424), Olympia, WA 98504; email them at vandewege.kevin@leg.wa.gov; tharinger.steve@leg.wa.gov; and hargrove.jim@leg.wa.gov.
Or you can call the Legislative Hotline, 800-562-6000, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays (closed on holidays and from noon to 1 p.m.) and leave a detailed message, which will be emailed to Van De Wege, Tharinger, Hargrove or to all three.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
