Small business urges federal agencies to reduce regulatory burden

But Mid-America Dental & Hearing Center in Mount Vernon spent about $15,000 upfront and another $100,000 that year to comply with the new regulation, said Scott George, CEO of the center’s practice management company.

Aside from the exorbitant cost, George’s main complaint is that bloodborne pathogens haven’t historically been much of a threat in a dentist’s office or hearing clinic. Yet OSHA requires such health care facilities to adhere to the standard, he noted.

George has proposed that OSHA modify the rule to establish tiered regulations depending on the amount of blood and other bodily fluids present at a facility. His suggestion is among 10 selected across the country that have been forwarded to the appropriate federal agencies for review.

The Office of Advocacy – an independent entity within the U.S. Small Business Administration – recently solicited ideas from small-business owners as part of its Regulatory Review and Reform initiative, or r3, for short.

Office of Advocacy officials received 82 proposed changes and narrowed the field to 10, all of which are administrative fixes that require no legislative action. Four of the proposed changes involved Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

“What we’re doing is asking these agencies to … listen to the voice of small business and determine whether or not there are alternative ways that they can reach their regulatory goal and lessen the negative impact on small business,” said Office of Advocacy spokesman John McDowell.

McDowell said the cumulative burden of federal regulations costs businesses $1.1 trillion each year, and small businesses bear the brunt. They pay an estimated 45 percent more per employee than big businesses to achieve federal compliance, according to Office of Advocacy research.

Unintended consequences

George, who is chairman of Missouri’s Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board, believes businesses need to communicate with government agencies about how certain rules or regulations may have unintended consequences.

“Contrary to popular belief, state and federal regulatory agencies are populated with people who are willing to figure out better ways to do things without compromising the intent of the regulations,” he said.

OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard – last revised in 2001 – requires a detailed exposure control plan and extensive employee training, said Bruce Lundegren, assistant chief counsel for the Office of Advocacy.

“Training is a major expense for small businesses, especially if you are being required to train for hazards that are not existent at your workplace,” Lundegren said.

At Mid-America Dental & Hearing Center, the standard has translated into higher costs and longer wait times for patients, George said, noting that OSHA requires a surface-sanitizing session between patients that can take up to 20 minutes. That’s time patients aren’t seeing doctors.

“It reduces access to care for the patient, drives up the cost of health care and has no discernible benefit in most places,” he added.

George cited statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bolster his case for rewriting the regulation. As of December 2002, the CDC reported 57 documented cases of health care workers who contracted HIV/AIDS on the job. None were in the dental or hearing fields.

“Where do these … people get this stuff?” George asked. “Well, it’s in trauma centers and emergency rooms and surgical suites – places where there’s a great deal of bodily fluids. … But what has happened is (OSHA) applied it to everybody; they just got carried away.”

Replacing the standard with tiered requirements would lower costs for family physician practices, nursing homes and dental offices, thereby making health care more affordable to those patients, George argued.

OSHA Area Director Barb Theriot said the agency’s regional office in Kansas City hasn’t received many complaints from small businesses about the standard, noting that the required training has been well-received in most health care circles.

Advocating change

Office of Advocacy officials said OSHA and other federal agencies reviewing the suggested changes are under no obligation to revise the rules. And those that do aren’t expected to move nimbly.

“It can take a significant period of time for agencies to act, even if they’re acting at their speediest,” McDowell said.

The Office of Advocacy will monitor the progress of its Top 10 recommended reforms and post biannual updates online at www.sba.gov/advo/r3. Site visitors also can nominate regulatory changes for next year’s round of submissions.

Amid sluggish economic conditions, McDowell anticipates small-business owners will have plenty of suggestions for keeping the cost of federal regulations as low as possible.

“In this environment, small businesses account for 60 (percent) to 80 percent of the net new jobs in our economy,” he said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have a heavier regulatory compliance burden on the very people that are creating jobs.”[[In-content Ad]]