Submitted by achenault on Wed, 03/02/2016 – 10:08am
That’s what the February 24th dental access Day At The Statehouse looked like.
Here it is by the numbers:
What did participants say?
There are 10 more Senators and 67 more House members who need to hear from us. You can still help. Contact David Maywhooor at dmaywhoor@uhcanohio.org or 614-456-0060 ext. 225 to talk about how to take the next important steps.
Here is a way to gain more knowledge about the dental therapist:
Employing Dental Therapists: Access and Financial Impact
Monday, March 7
1-2pm Eastern
Community Catalyst will host a webinar “Employing Dental Therapists: Access and Financial Impact” featuring John T. Powers D.D.S., Main Street Dental Care in Montevideo, MN and Sarah Wovcha, JD, MPH from Children’s Dental Services in Minneapolis, MN who will discuss their experiences of employing dental therapists and the impact on their practices.
Dr. Powers hired the first dental therapist in private practice and currently employees three dental therapists. Children’s Dental Services in Minneapolis, MN is the largest provider of school and Head Start-based dental care. Children’s Dental Services has consistently been on the forefront of dental innovations including being the first practice in Minnesota to apply sealants to children receiving Medical Assistance, the first on-site dental provider in Head Start settings in the nation, and the first employer of dental therapists in the lower 48 United States.
Please register and forward this information to your colleagues and encourage all interested partners to attend. Contact djordan@communitycatalyst.org with any questions.
Submitted by achenault on Wed, 03/16/2016 – 2:12pm
The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) has announced that they will begin eliminating spend-down after July 2016. People who are currently using health care expense spend-down to be eligible for Medicaid will have to meet income eligibility criteria (below 138% of the federal poverty limit, $16,242 per year for a single person; $24,250 per year for a family of four). At the same time, ODM will require only one determination of disability in order to qualify for Supplemental Social Security (SSI) and Medicaid benefits. Overall, this will bring a greater number of people into Medicaid but will also result in some people losing their Medicaid benefits.
If the following conditions apply to you, you may need to purchase insurance in the Health Insurance Marketplace:
People losing their Medicaid benefits that are 65 or older may need to enroll in Medicare.
ODM describes these changes on their website. ODM will be sending information to all people affected in the next few weeks. It is important that you carefully review any information that you get from ODM.
UHCAN Ohio and our partners have encouraged Medicaid to make the transition as easy as possible for all who are impacted. This includes providing transition periods, expanding coverage to a broader range of behavioral health conditions, and effectively informing those impacted and giving them guidance. We are especially concerned about those who will be losing Medicaid coverage.
If you believe your income is above 138% FPL ($16,242 per year for a single person; $24,250 per year for a family of four) and you will lose Medicaid coverage as a result of the change to spend-down, please let us know how you will be impacted.
Send us an e-mail to tell us how this will impact you and if you are willing to be contacted. Knowing how this affects you will help us tell the Ohio Department of Medicaid how to improve the transition.
The changes that will occur after July 2016 are complicated and are very specific to each individual’s circumstances. It will be important that you pay attention to the letter that you get from ODM to know how you are affected and what you have to do. As more detail is available, we will share it with you. Sign up here to receive email alerts about Medicaid spend-down as they develop.
Submitted by achenault on Wed, 04/06/2016 – 12:24pm
In any given day you consume any number of things – lunch, information, energy. But are you a “consumer”? I’m sure you’ve heard the term, but when you think about your health care, do you consider yourself a consumer?
For almost 20 years, UHCAN Ohio has been the voice of the consumer – people like you – advocating for affordable, accessible, and quality health care. UHCAN Ohio and advocates across the country use the word “consumer” to mean regular people: not doctors, insurance companies, or the government, but rather your neighbor, your child’s teacher, the person in your choir, or your brother who lost his job and insurance.
But when we say “consumer,” do you know we’re talking about you and that we want to hear your experiences so we can carry your voice to decision makers?
There are many associations and lobbyists that represent and protect the views of doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and all other interests in the health care system. If regular people like you are going to have a place at the health care decision-making table, we need to describe you in a way that aligns with how you think about yourself. So when we need to call on you for feedback on how affordable your health care costs are or to make a call to your senator, you know that we’re talking to you.
There are other words that speak to the personal nature of health, like “patient.” Typically, people use the word “patient” to describe the relationship they have with a doctor or nurse that cares for them. However, people don’t generally think of themselves as patients when they are healthy and working to keep themselves that way. How do you think of yourself when your diabetes is well controlled? Who are you when you are healthy but have a family history of early breast cancer? Who are you when you are deciding whether you can afford a visit to the doctor?
More commonly, you think of yourself as a parent, brother, or sister. But do you consider yourself a health care consumer?
Let me know how you would describe your role in the health care system. Do you consider yourself a consumer? Please send your thoughts to me at swagner@uhcanohio.org.
Submitted by achenault on Wed, 04/06/2016 – 2:11pm
According to the latest report from CMS on enrollment, during the last open enrollment period from November 1, 2015 – February 1, 2016, 243,715 Ohioans selected plans in the Marketplace. 84% of those received premium tax credits to help pay for their premiums.
Getting health coverage is only the first step. Learning how to use your coverage and connecting with a doctor is the second step, which goes largely unaddressed. That’s why UHCAN Ohio has shifted our focus to health insurance literacy through our outreach and enrollment project.
Our Approach:
We have compiled easy-to-understand handouts that help people understand how to use their insurance. We are using these materials along with a simple PowerPoint to host education groups for the newly insured at local churches and community organizations.
What We’ve Learned:
We’ve learned that about half of those that attend have not yet connected to a primary care doctor. We’ve also learned many do not know what services are covered as preventive services or understand their out of pocket costs. Most importantly, we’ve learned how valuable it was to provide an opportunity for people to ask questions. A forum for questions and answers allowed newly insured to take the next steps in getting the care they need.
Results:
By the end of the health insurance literacy groups, participants demonstrated increased knowledge in the following areas: 1) how to connect to primary care, 2) out-of-pocket cost, and 3) what services are considered preventive care.
Next Steps:
What do you think are the most confusing things about insurance? Email us at info@uhcanohio.org.
Tomorrow, the Ohio Department of Medicaid will open public comment on their proposal to significantly change Ohio’s Medicaid program based on guidelines passed by the State Legislature in the last state budget. These proposed changes could cause more than 1 million of Ohio’s most vulnerable people including women, parents, people who are homeless, and others, to lose their health coverage by forcing Medicaid enrollees to pay monthly premiums that aren’t affordable and establishing confusing health spending accounts.
Currently, Medicaid helps many Ohioans, like Jackie B. get and keep employment, stabilizes their families, and helps them stay healthy.
Jackie B. is a retail worker and single mom of four children. Her present employer offers health coverage, but at around $ 40.00 per week out of pocket, it’s simply too expensive. Until last year, when Jackie qualified for Medicaid under the expansion, Jackie had to deal with the day-to-day worry of being uninsured. Over the course of 13 years without access to regular health care, Jackie’s medical needs, went largely unaddressed and her only source of care was the hospital emergency room. Now that she has coverage through Medicaid, she gets the care she needs. But, with the changes proposed in the Medicaid waiver, Jackie fears she will not be able to meet the monthly premiums and could lose the care she went so long without. “I can’t go back to life without health coverage”, said Jackie. “I can now get the care I need to lead a full and productive life,” says Jackie.
The proposed changes could also add to the overall cost of our health system by increasing administrative costs, through a new debit card system. It creates a number of new variables that the state must administer and track. Setting up and maintaining administrative systems costs money. Experiences in several states like Arkansas and Oregon have shown that Medicaid program elements like health spending accounts can be costly to administer and premiums can cause a decline in program enrollment.
“This proposal, if approved, will undermine the progress Ohio has made in increasing access to health care, said Steve Wagner, Executive Director of UHCAN Ohio. “This proposal hurts people like servers at restaurants, retail associates, and caregivers. These are people who are barely getting by as it is. Studies show that requiring our lowest income neighbors and friends to pay for health care costs makes them put off getting important preventive care and instead only going to the doctor when the problem is severe. This “sick-care” drives up health care costs in the long term. If the intention of this proposal is to reduce Medicaid spending while growing healthy families, it is misguided,” said Wagner.
UHCAN Ohio is encouraging people who get their health coverage through Medicaid or care about low income families to participate in the 2 open comment periods, at the state and federal level. “The state and federal government needs to hear how these changes would affect peoples’ access to quality health care”, said Ms. Carter. “There are many ways to make your voice heard, like sharing your personal experience at one of the hearings or through a written submission. Organizations can develop their own comments based on the interests of those they serve, sign on to a letter, or participate in the hearings, said Carter. “Ultimately, we’re asking the federal government to reject Ohio’s waiver proposal in order to protect families so they can get the care they need to live healthier lives,” said Carter.
To learn more about how to participate in the state or federal comment periods, please visit, HealthyOhioMedicaidWaiver.
Last week we delivered a Lawmaker Letter which provided state lawmakers with details about the safety, quality care, education, and training of the dental therapist just days before the professional dental lobby group held its “day at the statehouse.” We wanted to let legislators know that they do not speak for all dentists or the many community-based and statewide organizations, including the Ohio Dental Hygienist Association, who support expanding the dental care team.
Following are excerpts from the Lawmaker Letter.
“It is no longer a question as to whether adding new providers to the dental team will expand access to quality care. Numerous evaluations prove that dental therapists will. The question that remains is when will Ohio take this critical step to improve access to care?”
We knew that lawmakers would hear concerns from organized dentistry but wanted to make sure they knew that the evidence supporting dental therapists includes the following:
Regarding SAFE, QUALITY CARE
Studies show conclusively that dental therapists deliver safe, quality care. In addition, they allow dentists to grow their practices and increase revenues while treating more patients.
The American Dental Association’s own journal acknowledged “a variety of studies indicate that appropriately trained mid-level providers are capable of providing high quality service.” There have been more than a thousand studies on the quality of care provided by dental mid-levels, and none has ever shown it to be unsafe.
A 2012 literature review of more than 1,100 studies across multiple nations demonstrates the quality of care provided by dental therapists. We have also seen it in practice here in the U.S. In Alaska, dental therapists have been able to provide quality care since 2005 to 35,000 people who previously had no opportunity for dental care. In Minnesota, one practice has been able to save $1,200 a week by adding a dental therapist to the team. That therapist cared for 1,000 people in the first year alone. A further Minnesota study shows that dental therapists are expanding access to care to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured patients. Clinics reported improved quality and high patient satisfaction in addition to reduced travel and wait times for some patients.
Regarding EDUCATION AND TRAINING
“They’ll [dental therapists] get actually more practice than a dentist does by the time they graduate. The dental therapist has a very small scope of practice. The dentist has to do multiple procedures.” –Dr. Mary Williard, the Director of the Dental Health Aide Therapist Training Program in Alaska, graduate of The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, 1994.
In February 2015, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) approved national training standards for dental therapy education programs. CODA is the same accreditation body for the education of dentists and dental hygienists. CODA adopted standards that ensure training institutions will have national and streamlined standards to shape their dental therapy programs.
The CODA approval signaled that organized dentistry’s accrediting body thought it was in the best interest of the dental profession and the public to develop national standards for the program. More importantly, the vote was recognition that dental therapy as a profession is here to stay.
Acknowledging the need for national standards and establishing them is another important step in dentistry’s path toward adopting team based providers—a step the medical community took decades ago when it expanded the medical team to include physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
Public health dentists across the country and the world promote this evidence-based approach to expanding access to dental providers. Team-based dental care that includes dental therapists can increase access to quality care in a way that is proven and cost-effective. With the number of dental health professional shortage areas in Ohio on the rise, we need to modernize our dental practice laws to expand the dental care team to include dental therapists who can treat dental disease.
