Cost-Savings of Fluoride Varnish Application in Primary Care for Medicaid-Enrolled Children in Virginia.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the cost-benefit of fluoride varnish application during pediatric well-visits for the Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Program population in Virginia (VA) from a Medicaid payer perspective. To provide initial cost estimates from the primary care provider (PCP) perspective. STUDY DESIGN: A systematic search of recent literature was completed to obtain input data for a Monte Carlo cost-benefit simulation and for the fluoride varnish application time, labor, and materials costs for PCPs. The analysis was conducted from a Medicaid perspective; costs and savings related to fluoride varnish application in primary dentition through 7.5 years were calculated for all Medicaid-eligible children up to 3 years of age in VA. Sensitivity analysis was performed to mitigate the effects of parameter uncertainty. RESULTS: Delivering fluoride varnish to all children <3 years old in VA who annually receive well-visits through Medicaid but did not receive fluoride varnish at those visits would reduce the percent of 7.5 year olds with decay from 63.2% to 39.8%. Accounting for averted restoration cost, PCP fluoride varnish application would save $75.32 per child, or a total population savings of almost $2 million/year for VA Medicaid. From the PCP perspective, the Medicaid reimbursement rate for fluoride varnish is 3.8-12.0 times the direct fluoride varnish application cost (labor and materials). CONCLUSIONS: Application of fluoride varnish by a PCP to children under 3 years of age is cost-saving in this study population. Costs to provide fluoride varnish from the PCP perspective are favorable compared with the Medicaid reimbursement, but additional studies on optimizing fluoride varnish application into the well-visit workflow are needed.

Variations in Cigarette Smoking and Quit Attempts by Health Insurance Among US Adults in 41 States and 2 Jurisdictions, 2014.

OBJECTIVES: Information on the impact of health insurance on smoking and quit attempts at the state level is limited. We examined the state-specific prevalence of cigarette smoking and past-year quit attempts among adults aged 18-64 by health insurance and other individual- and state-level factors. METHODS: We used data from 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, the jurisdictions that administered the Health Care Access module of the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Data on quit attempts included current smokers with a past-year quit attempt and former smokers who quit during the past year. RESULTS: Overall, smoking prevalence ranged from 14.6% among those with private insurance to 34.7% among Medicaid enrollees, and past-year quit-attempt prevalence ranged from 66.4% among the uninsured to 71.5% among Medicaid enrollees. By insurance group, differences in the prevalence of state-specific past-year quit attempts ranged from 15 to 26 percentage points. Regardless of insurance type, people who were non-Hispanic white and had lower education levels were less likely to attempt quitting than were Hispanic people, non-Hispanic black people, and adults with more than a high school education. CONCLUSIONS: We found disparities in smoking and quit attempts by insurance status and state. Opportunities exist to increase access to cessation treatments through comprehensive state tobacco control programs and improved cessation insurance coverage, coupled with promotion of covered cessation treatments.