FL 2030 Trailblazer Spotlight – Joe Anne Hart, Florida Dental Association

Tell us a little about Florida Dental Association (FDA).

Florida Dental Association (FDA) is an industry association representing 8,000+ Florida dentists, many of whom are small business owners and employers.

What made FDA join the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and what would you say to other Florida business leaders about the benefit and value of this partnership?

FDA has a mutual interest in promoting a strong climate for Florida’s small businesses to thrive. Being a part of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees provides a great opportunity for Florida’s business leaders to not only connect in areas that impact the future of Florida’s business community, but residents as well; in FDA’s case, oral health, which is a critical part of Floridians’ overall health, well-being, and success.

What are the FDA’s particular areas of interest as it applies to reaching the Florida 2030 Blueprint goals designed to make Florida a top 10 global economy by 2030?

• Improving Florida’s Talent Pipeline for a Better Workforce – Impact of oral health on missed days of school and students’ performance and success
• Building the Perfect Climate for Business – Evaluating regulatory/insurance issues that may impact dentists, who are small businesses
• Championing Florida’s Quality of Life – Importance of access to health care/dental care in making Florida an attractive place to live, raising our health care rankings, and highlighting the impact of dental issues on missed days of work/ability to get a job.

Adequate access to dental care in all communities can help reduce the occurrences of visits to hospital emergency rooms for dental emergencies, which are not treated in hospitals and can accumulate highly uncompensated care costs; these costs are in turn borne by taxpayers in that community/area and create higher overall health care costs (to cover those uncompensated costs).

Click here to learn about the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Board of Trustees who are uniting Florida businesses for good around the Florida 2030 Blueprint.