There is a huge difference between how much Medicaid pays for dental care and how much it actually costs in North Carolina. This affects both patients and doctors.
If you are a dentist in North Carolina and the owner of Smile Starters, Dr. Rafael Rivera, said that the gap is affecting the standard of dental care all over the state.
“It’s only 30 cents on the dollar, or 30% of what we should be paid for the procedures.” That’s not exactly right, but it’s between 30% and 35%. “It’s a lot worse if you’re an oral surgeon in the state taking care of patients,” he said.
Since 2008, those compensation rates have not been changed. Rivera also said that dentist offices have trouble hiring and keeping skilled workers because they don’t have enough money.
He said that because of this, Medicaid people with dental problems often go to emergency rooms, which is more expensive and doesn’t work as well.
Rivera suggested making the network of Community Dental Health Coordinators bigger to deal with these problems.
He thinks that these coordinators could be very helpful in connecting patients with dental providers, especially those who have trouble communicating or don’t know what services are offered. He also asked for more money and safety measures that help dentist offices keep up with inflation.
“Our legislator ideally will find a way to not only just put an increase in place, but more importantly have a mechanism that requires them to reevaluate it on a regular basis so that we don’t have to go another 16 years before an increase is in place again,” said he.
Rivera made it clear that this problem is bigger than just dental care, pointing out that research has shown that good dental health is tied to better health in general. Over 500,000 people have signed up for Medicaid since it was made available to more people.