View the Latest: Oral Health
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Oral Health: Putting Teeth into the Health Care System
Event Date:EventThe Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored an August 17 briefing to discuss oral health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). While PPACA ensures dental coverage for children, challenges remain to improve dental health access and coverage for adults.
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Coverage of Dental Services in Traditional Medicare
Issue BriefIn Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rules from recent years, the administration made changes to Medicare payment policies for certain dental services, in addition to other payment and policy changes. The 2023 rule clarified CMS’s interpretation of when medically necessary dental services can be covered and codified certain payment policies, and the 2023, 2024, and 2025 rules define new clinical scenarios for which Medicare payment can be made for dental services. This brief describes current law related to coverage and payment for dental services under Medicare and the rationale for changes to current policy, explains changes to dental payment and coverage included in these rules, and discusses the impact on Medicare and beneficiaries. While these changes are projected to benefit a small number of Medicare beneficiaries, they do not represent a broad expansion of Medicare coverage of dental services.
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Water Fluoridation in the U.S.: The Federal Role in Policy and Practice
Issue BriefThis Issue Brief reviews the federal role in setting U.S. water fluoridation policies, discusses current federal recommendations for water fluoridation, and summarizes the extent of water fluoridation across U.S. states.
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Access to Dental Care in Medicaid: Spotlight on Nonelderly Adults
Issue BriefThis brief examines the oral health status of low-income adults, the dental benefits covered by state Medicaid programs, and low-income adults’ access to dental care today.
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Oral Histories: Report from a Dental Fair
VideoThis video profiles patients attending a dental fair in rural Virginia and highlights the impact of lack of coverage for oral health services. Uninsured adults have vast oral care needs, and untreated dental problems can have serious health, employment and social consequences.
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Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Adults in Medicaid: Key Themes from a Policy Roundtable
ReportMedicaid and CHIP programs have made significant strides in improving low-income children’s access to and use of dental care, but access to oral health care for low-income adults lags far behind. To probe current opportunities, challenges, and strategies related to expanding access to oral health care for adults in Medicaid, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured convened a group of experts and stakeholders in Spring 2016 to discuss the issues. This brief conveys key themes that emerged from the conversation.