Background. There is little published research on whether public and private dental benefits plans affect the types of oral health care procedures patients receive. This study compares the dental procedure mix by age group (children, working-age adults, older adults), dental benefits type (Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program, private), and level of Medicaid dental benefits by state (emergency only, limited, extensive).Methods. The authors extracted public dental benefits claims data from the 2018 Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System. To compare procedure mix with beneficiaries who had private dental benefits, the authors used claims data from the 2018 IBM MarketScan dental database. The authors categorized dental procedures into specific service categories and calculated the share of procedures performed within each category. They analyzed procedure mix by age, plan type (fee-for-service, managed care), and adult Medicaid benefit level.Results. Aside from orthodontic services, the dental procedure mix among children with public and private benefits is similar. Among adults with public benefits, surgical interventions make up a higher share of dental procedures than routine preventive services. Conclusions.Children with public benefits have a procedure mix comparable with those with private benefits. There are substantial differences in procedure mix between publicly and privately insured adults. Even in states that provide extensive dental benefits in Medicaid, those programs primarily finance invasive surgical treatment as opposed to preventive treatment.Practical Implications. There is a need to assess best practices in publicly funded programs for children and translate those attributes to programs for adults for more equitable benefit design and care delivery across public and private insurers.
Low utilization of dental services among low-income individuals and racial minorities reflects pervasive inequities in U.S. health care. There is limited research determining common characteristics among dentists who participate in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Using detailed Medicaid claims data and a provider database, we estimate that among dentists with 100 or more pediatric Medicaid patients, 48% practice in high-poverty areas, 10% practice in rural areas, and 29% work in large practices (11 or more dentists). Among those with zero Medicaid patients, 18% practice in high-poverty areas, 4% practice in rural areas, and 11% work in large practices. We found that dentist race/ethnicity has an independent effect on Medicaid participation even when adjusting for community characteristics, meaning non-White dentists are more likely to treat Medicaid patients, regardless of the median income or racial/ethnic profile of the community.
Objectives: Individuals with disabilities experience greater barriers accessing health care services and have poorer oral health outcomes than those without disabilities. The aims of this study were to examine dental access, utilization, expenditures, and sources of payment between adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), other types of disabilities, and without disabilities. Methods: Secondary analyses of data from the 2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) allowed examination of dental access (being able to get dental care and receiving necessary dental care without delay), dental utilization (having a dental visit in the past year), total dental expenditures, and associated sources of payment between three groups of adults based on disability status using descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable statistics. Results: Adults with ID have 2.70 (95% CI: 2.03, 3.61) times the odds of being unable to get dental care and 2.88 (95% CI: 2.11, 3.94) times the odds of having to delay necessary dental care compared with adults without disabilities. No significant differences were observed in dental utilization or mean total dental expenditure between the three groups after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables. Among adults who incurred a dental expenditure, adults with ID had a greater share of dental care paid for by Medicaid, and adults without disabilities had a greater share of dental care paid for by private insurance. Conclusions: Despite similar mean total dental expenditures, reduced dental access reported by adults with ID suggests that this population experiences significantly greater challenges obtaining dental care. Adults with ID rely more heavily on Medicaid to finance dental care.
Training, service delivery, and financing are done separately in dentistry and general health care, which has influenced reimbursement structures, access to services, and outcomes. This article considers how medical and dental separation exacerbates health inequity and canvasses data demonstrating that oral health and dental services are the least affordable health services. This article also proposes how dental and general medical care coverage can be meaningfully integrated through better health policy to motivate health equity. DividedDental care services have a long history of being financed and delivered separately from medical care services. 1,2 In the mid-1800s, dental schools and associations were established independently of medical schools and associations. 1 Several important US health care reform milestones have reinforced this separation-most recently, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. Under the ACA, dental care for adults was not included as an essential health benefit, and, while dental care for children was included and lowered total financial outlays, 3,4 the increase in stand-alone dental plans between 2014 and 2016 reinforced the separation of dental and medical insurance. 4 In this article, we summarize the implications of financing and delivering dental care separately from medical care, focusing on trends in outcomes and in affordability and utilization of dental care services and highlighting disparities by income, age, and race. We also pose some key questions for policymakers seeking to address these issues.
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