Ohio faces access-to-care issues despite expanded Medicaid coverage

The recent expansion of Medicaid in Ohio gives 275,000 more residents an oral health care benefit, but Ohio has 81 designated dental provider shortage areas, communities and counties that don't have enough dentists to meet the needs of residents, according to a crawfordcounty.com story.

The state needs to expand access to basic dental services in these underserved areas by allowing midlevel providers (MLPs) to provide basic dental services, but who get paid about half of a dentist's salary, according to consumer advocacy group Ohio Consumers for Health Coverage.

MLPs can perform preventive and routine care, which can prevent most dental problems from turning into dental emergencies, the group said. A recent Medicaid survey found that nearly 1.4 million adults and more than 125,000 children in Ohio had unmet needs for dental care in the past year.

It's estimated that only 12% of dentists take a significant number of Medicaid patients, and only 25% see at least one Medicaid patient. MLPs could make it financially feasible for dental practices to accept Medicaid, because their services cost patients much less than being seen by a dentist.

Despite some opposition from dentist groups to midlevel providers, the advocacy group said Ohio can't miss an opportunity to expand basic dental services by modernizing its dental practice laws.