Exploring Incentives Desired by Dentists to Increase Acceptance of Medicaid Patients

Objective: Access to care of the low-income population is limited by practicing dentists not participating in Medicaid. The objective of this study is to explore possible incentives, outside of reimbursement, to increase dentists' acceptance of Medicaid patients. Methods: Possible incentives were determined through a focus group and phone interviews with practicing dentists. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 500 Michigan Dental Association members through two separate mailings. Respondents' answers were entered to EpiData software and analyzed using SAS (9.1). Results: 206 surveys were received (41.2% response rate). About 55% of the respondents answered that they do not treat any Medicaid patients in their practice; yet about 60% answered they volunteer to provide services to low-income population. Low reimbursement rate is the biggest barrier for their participation in Medicaid: 95% and 82% responded that the minimum reimbursement level they would accept from Medicaid would be 50% and 60%, respectively. Another big barrier was delay in reimbursement (49%). None of the suggested incentives were received favorably by more than 50% of the respondents. The most likely incentive to increase acceptance was a Tax Deduction, in which 49.5% said it would likely increase their acceptance. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that incentives, other than increasing the reimbursement rate and changing administrative barriers, will not likely motivate practicing dentists to participate in Medicaid. However, the results also suggest that a variety of incentive programs need to be developed to target different populations of dentists.