Impact of state-level training requirements for medical providers on receipt of preventive oral health services for young children enrolled in Medicaid.

OBJECTIVES: Young children enrolled in Medicaid make few dental visits and have high rates of tooth decay. To improve access to care, state Medicaid programs have enacted policies encouraging nondental providers to deliver preventive oral health services (POHS) in medical offices. Policies vary by state, with some states requiring medical providers to obtain training prior to delivering POHS. Our objective was to test whether these training requirements were associated with higher rates of POHS for Medicaid-enrolled children <6 years. METHODS: This study took advantage of a natural experiment in which policy enactment occurred across states at different times. We used Medicaid Analytic eXtract enrollment and claims data, public policy data, and Area Health Resource Files data. We examined an unweighted sample of 8,711,192 (45,107,240 weighted) Medicaid-enrolled children <6 years in 38 states from 2006 to 2014. Multivariable logistic regression models estimated the odds a child received POHS in a calendar year. Results are presented as adjusted probabilities. RESULTS: Five or more years after policy enactment, the probability of a child receiving POHS in medical offices was 10.7 percent in states with training requirements compared to 5.0 percent in states without training requirements (P = 0.01). Findings were similar when receipt of any POHS in medical or dental offices was examined 5 or more years post-policy-enactment (requirement = 42.5 percent, no requirement = 33.6 percent, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Medicaid policies increased young children's receipt of POHS and at higher rates in states that required POHS training. These results suggest that oral health training for nondental practitioners is a key component of policy success.

Impact of a Medicaid policy on preventive oral health services for children with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, or both.

BACKGROUND: Integrating preventive oral health services (POHS) into medical offices may ease access to care for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The authors examined the impact of state policies allowing delivery of POHS in medical offices on receipt of POHS among Medicaid enrollees with IDD. METHODS: The authors used 2006 through 2014 Medicaid data for children with IDD aged 6 months through 5 years from 38 states. IDD were defined using 14 condition codes from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse. The length of the state's medical POHS policy (no policy, < 1 year, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, or ≥ 4 years) was interacted with an indicator that the child was younger than 3 years. The authors used logistic regression models to estimate the likelihood that a child received POHS in a medical office or in a medical or dental office in a given year. RESULTS: Among 447,918 children with IDD, 1.6% received POHS in medical offices. Children younger than 3 years in states with longer-enacted policies had higher rates of receiving POHS. For example, the predicted probability of receiving POHS was 40.6% (95% confidence interval, 36.3% to 44.9%) for children younger than 3 years in states with a medical POHS policy for more than 4 years compared with 30.6% (95% confidence interval, 27.8% to 33.5%) for children in states without a policy. CONCLUSIONS: State Medicaid policies allowing delivery of POHS in medical offices increased receipt of POHS among Medicaid-enrolled children with IDD who were younger than 3 years. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Few children with IDD receive POHS in any setting. Efforts are needed to reduce barriers to POHS for publicly insured children with IDD.