A source informed TDMR in late October that they estimated the number of dentists in Texas on payment holds placed by Medicaid dental maintenance organization MCNA to be around 200.
Spate of payment holds
TDMR reported back in August about the spate of payment holds being placed on Medicaid dentists by MCNA for apparent program violations, not possible fraud which is the requirement per state law.
If 200 is close to being accurate, this figure would represent over 3% of all Medicaid dentists in Texas. At the end of 2015, there were 6,520 dentists participating in Medicaid per the Health and Human Services Commission.
MCNA says “not correct”
TDMR sent an email several weeks ago to MCNA for comment on the 200 number and was told that the figure was “not correct.” We would like to thank MCNA VP Shannon Turner who took time out from a serious family emergency to give us at least this short response at the end of October.
Let us know
As we have not had any further response from MCNA and the issue is one that may impact many dentists, we wanted to publish a story and ask for remarks from our readers as we would like to gauge how widespread the situation may be.
If you would like to respond, please email us at info@tdmr.org or comment on this story.
That payment hold number seems low, there should be far more than that. There are no less than 40 offices in my area in blatant violation of program rules warranting payhold. I really feel bad for the good guys trying to help out and do medicaid with this trash around.
Thanks for commenting. Maybe “incorrect” means more than 200 rather than less?