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October 09, 2009 at 08:00 PM
Some states are improving Medicaid dental benefits by working with private insurers, or emulating private dental benefits programs, according to officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The GAO prepared a report on Medicaid dental benefits for children at the request of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s domestic policy subcommittee, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
The subcommittee began looking into the topic in 2007, after Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old Maryland Medicaid plan member, died because he was unable to find a dentist who took Medicaid and was willing to help him overcome a tooth infection.
Since then, Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have taken a number of actions to try to improve the dental benefits that Medicaid provides for children, but gaps remain, Alicia Puente Cackley, a GAO director, writes in a letter summarizing the GAO’s findings.
Only 37% of children ages 2 to 18 who are in Medicaid are getting any dental care, Puente-Cackley writes.
All of the 21 state that use managed care organizations to provide Medicaid dental services have set access standards, but 14 states say the dental managed care plans have failed to meet the access standards, officials report.
