How A Child-Medicaid Law – Affects All Dentists And Patients.
There’s a little-known federal law that, if properly enforced, could revolutionize dental care. This law is important to every dentist and dental patient – whether you work with Medicaid or not. This article is meant to empower states across the nation – on how to improve access to care for both Medicaid and Non-Medicaid patients. The Child-Medicaid Law That Changes…
DentaQuest Troubles Continue in Louisiana
DentaQuest is a “third party administrator” (TPA) for over 30 state Medicaid dental programs – and shrinking. Massachusetts’ recent replacement of DentaQuest with Benecare was DentaQuest’s first performance-based state-booting – “The Boot State” of Louisiana appears ready to kick DentaQuest out, too. History in Louisiana Since January 1, 2021, DentaQuest has been one of Louisiana’s Medicaid dental benefit program managers…
The ADA’S DQA is Subverting ADA Policy on Capitation Plans
In our previous article, we explained Value-Based Care Plans (VBC – aka Capitation) and presented the official policy of the American Dental Association (ADA) against such plans. Yet just inside the ADA, a powerful group known as the “Dental Quality Alliance” (DQA) is promoting value-based care. This ADA group has become a VBC platform for dental insurers – who…
We Agree with the ADA – Value-Based Care is Not Good for Patients
Value-based care (VBC) is the new dental insurance buzzword – an attractive label. But looking past the surface, it is essentially capitation – just relabeled. Capitation has had a long failed history in health care, and relabeling it does not solve its design flaws. In essence, VBC (capitation) is a payment system in which dentists receive a set amount per…
BeneCare Awarded MassHealth Medicaid Dental Contract After DentaQuest’s Problematic Tenure
MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid Agency, has removed DentaQuest as its Third Party Administrator (TPA) for dental care following numerous public criticisms of DentaQuest. MassHealth has instead chosen BeneCare Dental Plans to replace DentaQuest in administering services for over 2 million Medicaid-eligible Residents. DentaQuest’s Troubled History The transition to BeneCare comes after a problematic tenure by DentaQuest, which has faced criticism…
“Access to Care” in Medicaid means Time to Receive Treatment – not Distance to Provider
This past February, the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS) and nine other dental organizations submitted identical letters to the MassHealth Dental Program, indicating that DentaQuest, MassHealth’s third-party administrator, has failed to comply with a federal law delineating access to care requirements for Medicaid children. Specifically, the letter points to the use of a non-compliant network adequacy analysis performed by DentaQuest, in…
