Oral Health

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 the final rule, and discusses the impact on Medicare and beneficiaries. This rule modestly expands the types of dental services that are covered under Medicare, but it does not represent a broad expansion of Medicare coverage of dental services and will not substantially increase Medicare spending or covered dental services for a large number of Medicare beneficiaries.

Many Medicare beneficiaries face high annual out-of-pocket costs for dental and hearing care — services that generally aren’t covered in traditional Medicare, but typically are covered by Medicare Advantage plans though the scope and value of these benefits vary, finds a new KFF analysis. The analysis shows that, among beneficiaries…

This analysis builds on our prior work – Medicare and Dental Coverage: A Closer Look – by analyzing hearing and vision use, out-of-pocket spending and cost-related barriers to care among Medicare beneficiaries as well as hearing and vision benefits in Medicare Advantage plans. It also incorporates top-level findings from the analysis of dental services to provide a comprehensive profile of dental, hearing, and vision benefits in Medicare.