DentaQuest participated in the Massachusetts Dental Society's (MDS) New England Oral Health Summit, held today in Boston, to discuss healthcare delivery and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Ralph Fuccillo, DentaQuest Foundation president, and MDS President Paula Friedman, DDS, encouraged professionals and communities to work together to ensure that dental health and dentists are involved in shaping the future of healthcare delivery and reform. An estimated 20% (about 17 million) of children go without dental care annually, but beginning in 2014, individual and small group health plans will offer essential pediatric dental benefits, giving access to nearly 27 million children.
The federal government will measure and publish information on quality of care, and dental care providers need to understand how the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will measure quality.
More than 200 dental professionals and others from across New England participated in the summit and brought various perspectives. They heard from speakers about the current healthcare delivery environment and joined group sessions to develop messages for dental care providers across New England about the future impact on dental care delivery and how they can be involved.
