The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #64169

Barbara A. Ormond, PhD, Sharon K Long, PhD, and Grace Ko, BA. Health Policy Center, The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street NW, Washington DC, DC 20037, 202-261-5782, bormond@ui.urban.org

Under Medicaid, states are obligated to provide coverage for children’s oral health care services. In the past, access to dental care has been problematic for Medicaid enrollees in many states, and rates of dental visits for low-income children vary widely across the states. Data from the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) for 13 states and the nation as a whole show the percentage of low income children with no reported dental visits in the survey year averaged 30.1 percent nationwide and ranged from 18.0 to 41.1 percent across the 13 study states in 1999. Many states have, in recent years, implemented policies to improve access for their Medicaid enrollees. We use multivariate analysis of the 1997 and 1999 rounds of the NSAF to look at the effect of Medicaid policies on Medicaid child enrollees’ use of dental services, controlling for demographic characteristics, local dental services market characteristics, and the attitudes of the child’s caregiver. The Medicaid policies under consideration include provider-centered initiatives (financial incentives, administrative improvements, education and outreach, and other approaches to increasing provider participation), beneficiary-focused initiatives (education on the importance of dental care and education on appropriate patient behavior), and other initiatives aimed at improving access (expanding use of non-dentist providers, expanding managed care, and providing school-based or mobile dental care services). We look at the effect of Medicaid policies on the likelihood of a child having a dental visit, the number of visits each child had, and the extent of reported unmet dental need.

Learning Objectives:

• This session will provide state Medicaid officials and policy makers with information on types of Medicaid policies that have been implemented in various states and the effects of those policies on child enrollees’ use of dental care. The goal of the session is to provide insights into policies that lead to improvements in child enrollees’ access to oral health care services. State Medicaid officials and policy makers can use the information from this session to help them assess the likely effect of current or proposed policies in their own states.

Keywords: Access, Medicaid

Related Web page: www.urban.org/Content/Research/NewFederalism/NSAF/Overview/NSAFOverview.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.