New Oral Health Advocacy Collaborative Begins

The Center for Medicare Advocacy is pleased to share a new opportunity for advocates working to add a comprehensive oral health benefit to Medicare. The Oral Health Progress Equity Network (OPEN), a national network of individuals and organizations that believe oral health is essential to overall health and wellbeing, is organizing across the country to ensure that fact is widely understood and embraced. OPEN has recently developed a new community opportunity, The Action for Medicare Dental Learning Collaborative (AMDLC). See below for details, and information on how to join.
Led and facilitated by Melissa Burroughs, oral health campaign manager for Families USA, the AMDLC will include regularly scheduled calls to:

• Share state and national updates on advocacy and developments around adding a dental benefit to Medicare.
• Provide a facilitated space for advocates to ask questions of one another and strategize for optimal collective impact.
• Share guidance – from subject-matter experts and peers – on how state and grassroots advocacy organizations can advance the benefit.
• Identify existing OPEN resources (and suggest new ones needed) that can support these advocacy efforts.

Who should join the AMDLC?
The AMDLC is for OPEN members working or interested in the fields of Medicare benefits expansion; oral and overall health for seniors; advocacy for seniors; and other aspects of oral and overall health that would be improved or otherwise affected by a Medicare dental benefit. While designed with OPEN members in mind, the AMDLC will also be open to new stakeholders who may want to become involved in the Network by joining this community.
How can you join the AMDLC?
If you have a Socious account and would like to join the AMDLC, please:

•  Log on to Socious
• Click on “Communities” on the top toolbar
• Click on “All Target, State, and Work Group Communities”
• Click on “Network Response Teams”
• Once you are on that page, scroll down to find the AMDLC, and click on “Request to Join Community”

Those without a Socious account can request one here, and then follow the above instructions once the account is set up.
The first call of the AMDLC will take place on Tuesday, July 9, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm ET. Once you are subscribed to the Socious AMDLC community, you will receive a call invitation. Please reach out to Stacey Chazin at schazin@anohc.org with any questions.