A Medicaid population's use of physicians' offices for dental problems.

Abstract

This study evaluated how the elimination of Medicaid reimbursement to dentists for the treatment of adult dental problems affected patients' visits to physicians. Data tapes describing physicians' claims for adult Medicaid patients were obtained from the Maryland Medicaid Management Information System. The database contains information on all claims made to Maryland Medicaid, including date, provider, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification Manual code, and payments. A total of 5334 individuals made physician's office claims related to dental problems sometime during the 4-year study period. The rate of dental-related claims by physicians decreased by 8% after the policy change. Visits to physicians' offices decreased even though an increase might have been expected because of the elimination of access to dentists in private practice. Patients might have assumed that if visits to dentists would no longer be paid for, neither would visits to physicians' offices.