Awareness

Increase awareness of state oral health inequities among providers and decision-makers and increase public awareness of best practices to promote good oral health.

• • Increase awareness and educate dental providers on social determinants of health. 
  • Increase primary care providers’ awareness of how many patients don’t see a dental provider in ND and their role.
  • Increase awareness among medical and dental providers on other services & billing reimbursement (case management & fluoride varnish application).
  • Increase awareness of patients’ needs for care coordination & integration of dental professionals as part of the medical team.
  • Complete a dental workforce crosswalk.

Availability, Access, & Uptake

Reduction in dental carries and increased overall dental care through education and integration with medical clinics for increased access to preventative dental care.

• • Connect with key staff at nursing schools. Find out if they integrate oral health into learning and, if not, share about Smiles for Life modules.
  • Visit decision-makers for medical facilities. Provide education through sharing the fluoride varnish toolkit and Smiles for Life modules. Education could be offered through lunch and learns/free CMEs, etc.
  • Work with Medicaid to eliminate the limit to CPT codes for varnish 99188 and CDT D1206.

Reimbursement & Claims Processing

Increase the number of enrolled providers per quarter.

• • Survey to find out more from providers about barriers and challenges to increasing acceptance of Medicaid Patients
  • Hold a focus group discussion with dentists not accepting Medicaid patients to discuss barriers to taking Medicaid patients and identify action items to overcome these barriers.
  • Provider awareness to dentists about NDMA patients
  • Create step-by-step guidance for enrollment/re-validation
  • Create an education opportunity (cheat sheet) for billing staff about new MA patients