Medicaid is broken as dental Medicaid providers know.  But who is going to fix it for the over 3 million Texas children eligible for Medicaid?

Let’s look at some facts:

• Providers make an easy target. They are not organized. The financial viability of their practices can be easily threatened by payment holds initiated at the whim of the Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of the Inspector General. They can be bashed about. They have no rights.

 

• It is not just dentists alone that have been put in this position. Doctors have been there for awhile as recent media in both the Texas Tribune and the Austin American-Statesman show.  But at least the Texas Medical Association backs honest Medicaid doctors.  The Texas Dental Association doesn’t care.

 

• By survey, 95% of dentists who take Medicaid patients do so because they want to give back to the community and help children who need help the most. But their reward for doing so is low reimbursement rates being made even lower through bundling of services, dental management organizations taking over treatment decisions, heavy paperwork and red-tape and the possibility of being labelled a criminal for something so small as a billing code error. The Inspector General has himself written in the press that Medicaid providers should not make money.

The future of a Medicaid provider does not look bright.

The Texas Dentists for Medicaid Reform are looking for legislative protections for all Medicaid providers. Unless there is such protection for providers, both providers and patients are at risk.

Here you will find all about the issues and the latest breaking news about what is happening.

 

We invite you to join with us!