MINOT, N.D (KMOT) – Medicaid pays dental providers 45% less than private insurance for both children and adult patients, according to the American Dental Association.
Kris Pladson, Minot Dental Program Director with Dakota College at Bottineau, said it’s difficult for providers to take on more patients with Medicaid because of the decrease in compensation.
The average dental school student graduates with student loans of $294,000, according to Education Data Initiative.
“I think in years past, there used to be more dentists that would accept patients that had the Medicaid type reimbursement, and now there isn’t enough dental practitioners to serve all the people,” said Pladson.
She said if more dental professionals were in the field, they might be able to serve more patients on Medicaid.
Source: Medicaid compensation leading dentists to difficult decisions / KFYR TV
Stagnant or rolled back reimbursements is a repellant to provider participation. So are administrative burdens and patient no-shows.
The admins know that. It is a decades old set of problems.
IMO, Federal Medicaid admins should be held to a fiduciary responsibility (passed down to the states who seek federal matching monies) to recruit and retain an adequate provider network for the number of beneficiaries in an area. Without a statutory obligation, the status quo will continue. With a statutory obligation, they will need to implement changes to attract providers. The concept of “recruitment” of providers includes activities aimed to get dentists to sign up. It is inadequate to merely announce a change in reimbursements. Phone calls, letters, maybe even scheduled office visits to discuss changes they’ve made and their need for providers in the area constitute recruitment efforts. It was never the obligation of organized dentistry to do this recruitment for their benefit program.