Democrats Look at Oversight of Medicaid Dental Benefits
Some congressional Democrats are pushing for increased enforcement of laws governing dental care for children enrolled in Medicaid, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports.
All children enrolled in Medicaid are supposed to receive dental care, but fewer than one in three children in the program visits a dentist annually, in part because of a shortage of dentists participating in the program.
Dennis Smith, director of Medicaid at CMS, said states are responsible for the shortage of dentists because their Medicaid reimbursement rates are too low, a statement that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) challenged.
Sara Rosenbaum, a health policy researcher at George Washington University, said, "In Medicaid, oversight of current program operations may be far more important than changing the law" (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 5/7).
Audio of the segment is available online.