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August 2003, Vol 93, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health 1297-1301
© 2003 American Public Health Association

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

A Medicaid Population’s Use of Physicians’ Offices for Dental Problems

Leonard A. Cohen, DDS, MPH, MS, Richard J. Manski, DDS, PhD, MBA, Laurence S. Magder, PhD and C. Daniel Mullins, PhD

Leonard A. Cohen and Richard J. Manski are with the Department of Oral Health Care Delivery, University of Maryland Dental School, Baltimore. Laurence S. Magder is with the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore. C. Daniel Mullins is with the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, University of Maryland Pharmacy School, Baltimore.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Leonard A. Cohen, DDS, MPH, MS, Professor and Chairman, Department of Oral Health Care Delivery, University of Maryland Dental School, 666 W Baltimore St, Baltimore, MD 21201 (e-mail: lac001{at}dental.umaryland.edu).

Objectives. This study evaluated how the elimination of Medicaid reimbursement to dentists for the treatment of adult dental problems affected patients’ visits to physicians.

Methods. 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.

Results. 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.

Conclusions. 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.






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