One bright spot has been the state’s Seal-A-Smile program. Progressive Community Health Centers and Milwaukee Health Services, as well as Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, have expanded their dental services in recent years. And until the state increases what it pays dentists, that is not going to happen.Īdvocates and the Wisconsin Dental Association have pushed for increases in reimbursement rates for more than a decade with little or no success - though the state has begun a pilot program that increases payment rates in four counties to see if it improves access to dental care. More private dentists need to accept Medicaid patients, he said. “It will be a great way to take care directly to the community,” he said.īut Crespin said that even two or three mobile clinics would not significantly improve access to dental care. Mary’s planned mobile clinic will improve access, said Matt Crespin, associate director of the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin. As a result, few private dentists see children and adults covered by the health program, though some dentists set aside time each week to see children.Īscension Columbia St. Wisconsin’s Medicaid program has one of the lowest reimbursement rates for dentists in the country. It worked out to an average of 533 a week. In yet another measure, emergency departments at Wisconsin hospitals saw 27,741 patients who were in pain because of dental problems, such as abscesses, in 2013, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. That compares with 48.1% of children nationally covered by Medicaid. 30, 2012, according to a 2014 report by researchers at George Washington University. Most of the children were covered by BadgerCare Plus, the state’s largest Medicaid program, and the lack of access to dental care for children and adults in the program is a longstanding and well-documented problem.įewer than one in three - 28.3% - children who get health care through Medicaid in Wisconsin received any dental services in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. Whether the remaining 450 children, as well as the 4,000 children with cavities, were able to get dental care elsewhere is uncertain. in Milwaukee, provided care to about 250 of the 700 children who needed urgent dental care last year. The mobile clinic will be made by Burlington-based LDV Inc., which builds specialty vehicles, including trucks for mobile command centers and for dealers of Snap-on tools. Mary’s hopes to raise $1 million to offset some of the initial operating costs. The mobile clinic itself will cost an estimated $500,000. “For some kids, this is going to be their first dental experience,” said Bill Solberg, director of community services for Ascension Columbia St. It will be staffed by a dentist, two dental assistants and two support workers. Mary’s estimates the mobile clinic will be able to treat 1,600 children in the next academic year. Mary’s has raised $550,000, including a $100,000 grant from Delta Dental of Wisconsin, and hopes to raise $1 million.ĭelta Dental, based in Stevens Point, is a nonprofit company that sells and administers dental insurance plans.Īscension Columbia St. Mary’s, which has steadily expanded its Smart Smiles program over the years, now is taking a step beyond preventive care to help children with the most immediate dental problems get the treatment they need: The health system is raising money for a mobile dental clinic that will be able to provide urgent dental care and treat cavities at schools in the Milwaukee area. The health system provided preventive care to the same number last year - and 700 of those children needed urgent dental care because of infections, swelling or bleeding. An additional 4,000 children had untreated cavities.Īscension Columbia St. The students are among the roughly 10,000 children who will receive preventive care this year through Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s - is providing basic preventive dental care to about 250 first- and second-graders at the school over a three-week period. The makeshift dental clinic - staffed by two hygienists and two assistants employed by Ascension Columbia St. View Gallery: Photos: Mobile dental clinicĪ parade of pint-sized patients made their way to a dental clinic set up on the stage in the cafeteria of St.
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