Seven dental payer updates since March 15:
1. Epic Insurance Brokers and Consultants acquired Treloar & Heisel, expanding Epic's financial planning and insurance services to dental and medical professionals.
2. The Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act, a piece of legislation requiring insurers to cover dental and oral procedures to treat birth defects, passed the House of Representatives.
3. The Illinois Legislature passed a bill that would require insurers to cover all craniofacial surgeries for kids up until age 19.
4. Dental insurance claims platform Zentist launched an artificial intelligence-guided platform that provides automated explanations of benefits for dental patients and DSOs.
5. Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a proposal to impose spending barriers on private dental insurers.
6. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's budget includes funds to expand dental benefits to those on the state's Medicaid program, TennCare, and incentivize dentists to open practices in underserved communities.
7. A bill introduced under Oklahoma's House of Representatives redefines covered services and would prevent insurers from deciding the cost of uncovered procedures, instead authorizing those costs to be decided between patients and dentists.