Oral health is a crucial aspect of overall health and dental treatment has by far been one of the most difficult aspects of health care to be accessible by low-income populations when compared to high-income persons. More persons have been reported not receiving necessary dental services due to cost, regardless of age or income, compared to prescription drug services, eyeglass services, medical care services, and mental health care.

There has been a lot of controversy over how issues have developed concerning the current challenge of providing dental treatments to Medicaid clients and some indigent across the country states are seeking answers as they are aware that these groups do not always receive the dental care they need. Both dental professional society politics and state licensing board procedures have been critiqued for possibly causing or at least contributing to this, there are valid and rational explanations for the current difficulty people are facing.

What Is Medicaid?
Medicaid is a scheme that offers health insurance to those people with low incomes and resources. Although the federal government establishes the program's minimum requirements for states, the program is mostly handled and partially funded by state governments, which also have considerable discretion in determining eligibility and benefits. Since it is managed at the state level, there are significant variations in each administration and coverage. It is exclusively accessible to people and families who meet certain income-based requirements for Medicaid programs and contributes significantly to their funding. As of 2017, Medicaid gave free health insurance to over 74 million low-income and disabled people, thus making it the highest source of funding for medical and health-related services for low-income people in the United States.

The Effects of Dentists on Medicaid
It is critical to identify the barriers that keep Medicaid participants from receiving their privileged dental benefits. This can be accomplished by encouraging the appropriate use of dental care services and effective maintenance of public healthcare spending. Many Medicaid beneficiaries face service barriers that extend beyond insurance coverage as a result of their social disadvantages. Logistic factors (e.g., childcare, transportation, and wait for long), low health literacy, a lack of awareness of benefits and coverage, and fewer options for Medicaid-accepting clinics with unsatisfactory care quality are examples of such barriers. The current study focused specifically on Medicaid enrollees' prior experiences with discrimination in healthcare settings, given that this type of health insurance is a source of discrimination and that patients with disabilities.

The Future Of Medicaid and Dentists
Due to changes in Medicaid adult dental benefits, the majority of Medicaid programs do not cover dental costs for several members who are adults. Medicaid costs are nevertheless directly impacted by dentistry-related emergency department(ED) admissions among Medicaid beneficiaries who have unmet dental needs. This is why over time, there has been an increase in dental-related ED admissions, which recently surpassed the growth in ED visits as a whole. Medicaid dental-related ED costs might be avoided by offering dental preventative coverage to meet unmet dental needs for adults.

Current research indicates that dental-related ED admissions are directly impacted by Medicaid dental coverage. This is why the recent Medicaid expansions without adult dental coverage have been linked to a significant cause of the increase in the proportion of Medicaid members seeking dental care in emergency departments, according to a study of the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment (HIE).

References
1. https://www.ada.org/-/media/project/ada-organization/ada/ada-org/files/resources/research/hpi/hpibrief_1021_1.pdf
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#Measures_of_poverty
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392117/#R10

Post URL: https://dentistsmedicaid.com/blog/6,The-History-Of-Dentists-And-Medicaid/

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