Association Between Medicaid Dental Payment Policies and Children's Dental Visits, Oral Health, and School Absences.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Although all state Medicaid programs cover children's dental services, less than half of publicly insured children receive recommended care.

Objective

To evaluate the association between the ratio of Medicaid payment rates to dentist charges for an index of services (fee ratio) and children's preventive dental visits, oral health, and school absences.

Design, setting, and participants

In this cross-sectional study, a difference-in-differences analysis was conducted between September 2021 and April 2022 of 15 738 Medicaid-enrolled children and a control group of 16 867 privately insured children aged 6 to 17 years who participated in the 2016-2019 National Survey of Children's Health. Exploratory subgroup analyses by sex and race and ethnicity were also perf

SUBMITTER: Lipton BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9463610 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature