There has been much
press surrounding IDA's ask for Governor Kim Reynolds to support a $31.5M increase to the dental Medicaid program budget. IDA Executive Director, Laurie Traetow made the ask to align Dental Wellness Plan (DWP) reimbursement rates with those of Hawki during the governor's public budget hearing last week.
“Dental Medicaid rates in Iowa now only reimburse between 30 cents to 40 cents for each $1 of care provided,” she said. “Due to the ongoing underfunding of the program, Iowa has seen a decrease in dentists taking on new Medicaid patients, which creates access to care issues for the children and adults receiving Medicaid dental benefits. These patients are having to travel outside of their communities to receive services and the waitlists for these services can be very lengthy.”
Ms. Traetow highlighted multiple factors as to why the current reimbursement is not adequate to sustain the DWP program, including:
- Increased cost of supplies, especially PPE compared to pre-pandemic costs.
- Workforce shortages are increasing wage expectations among dental office staff.
- The vast majority of dentist offices are small businesses.
“The vast majority of Iowa dentists are small business owners who often provide a certain level of charity care to those in need,” Ms. Traetow stated. “However, no small business can survive taking a 60-70 percent loss on the service it provides.”