RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- An expensive legislative fight between a professional organization for North Carolina dentists and companies that help manage dental practices has ended for now with legislation both sides say is a good step forward.
A legislative committee said Wednesday it supports a bill labeled as a compromise by lobbyists representing dental service organizations and the North Carolina Dental Society.
The society has pushed since last year legislation that would have regulated more closely dental organizations to ensure they were not determining patient treatment.
The management groups formed an alliance that hired several lobbyists to stop the bill and ran television ads pushing their case. The society ran its own commercial.
The compromise Tuesday night puts regulations in the hands of a task force organized by the state dental examiner board.
