25 - Private Practice Dentist Comments on Transition to Medicaid Managed Care for Kids

Abstract:

Objective: Iowa’s Medicaid dental program for children transitioned from state fee-for-service to privatized managed care in 2021 and was named the Dental Wellness Plan (DWP) Kids. The objective of this study was to assess common themes among dentist survey comments related to this transition.

Methods: The data source for this study was a survey sent to all private practice dentists in Iowa in August 2021 to assess dentist experiences and attitudes regarding Iowa’s Medicaid dental program. This study used data from two open-ended items from this survey related to the transition to DWP Kids: 1) “Do you have any comments about the transition to DWP Kids?” and 2) “If your acceptance of new child patients changed as a result of the transition to DWP Kids, what are the main reasons why it changed?” Responses were qualitatively analyzed and coded to determine common themes.

Results: 46% (n=564) of dentists participated in the survey. Of those, 25% responded to the first question and 14% responded to the second. For the first question, the most common themes were reimbursement, administrative burden, carrier issues, and the inability to restrict Medicaid participation to children only. For the second, the most common themes were reimbursement/cost and contract language, including concerns about child acceptance being tied to adult acceptance.

Conclusions: In a qualitative analysis of comments from a survey sent to private practice dentists, the most common themes related to the transition to Medicaid managed care for kids were reimbursement, administrative burden, carrier issues, and contract issues.

Source of Funding: Iowa Department of Health and Human Services