Sadly, one of the major casualties of the pandemic lockdown, was small business…ESPECIALLY privately-owned dental offices. Even some of the “corporate” practices took a BIG hit, and many still feel the crunch. Between worker shortages, patient reluctance to return to ANY medical setting, economic hardships and downturns, not to mention a steep decrease in retail environment traffic, everybody is taking a hit. BUT…the ones who are NOW paying the price, are patients, thanks a a SEVERE shortage of dentists for Medicaid-eligible patients in Texas!
Thanks to recent research conducted by TDMR (Texas Dentists for Medicaid Reform), through the HHS Open Records Office, they published some dire predictions…and possible solutions:
“Can 4,000 Dental Providers Serve 4.2 Million Medicaid Eligible Children?
MARCH 14, 2023
Texas needs to attract more dentists to help serve the ever-increasing number of Medicaid-eligible children in the state.
Medicaid dental provider statistics
Back at the end of 2013, there were roughly 3.2 million Medicaid-eligible children with 3,468 Medicaid dental providers (see PDF) to serve them. That's one dentist for every 922 potential patients. 19% of these 3,468 dentists saw less than 30 patients, with 63% seeing over 100 patients each. Don't think it was covered then.
At the end of 2022, there were 4.2 million Medicaid-eligible children. Because the final figures for active Medicaid dentists are not in for 2022, we will estimate 4,000 active dentists as the total. The gap is widening to one dentist for every 1,050 kids.
Lots of dentists in the state
The TSBDE maintains a database of licensees that is updated every 24 hours. Currently, there are 19,483 active, licensed dentists listed with the TSBDE, including all specialties.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has a 2021 list of "professionally active dentists ...defined by the ADA as those who are licensed as dentists, and determined to be not retired, not having a suspended dental licensed, living in the 50 states or District of Columbia, and as having a primary occupation of private practice, dental school/faculty staff member, armed forces, other federal services, state or local government employee, hospital staff dentist, graduate student/intern/resident, or other health/dental organization staff member." The ADA data shows 12,541 general dentists with another 3,400 specialists for a grand total of 15,992 active dentists in the state.
Texas HHS has reported that Texas had 14,445 actively licensed dentists in 2020.
Make it better to be a Medicaid provider
How does the state keep and interest more dentists to participate in Medicaid? Only roughly 28% do at this present time.
2023 has its challenges. Dentists in private practice are saying they need to raise their fees to cover inflationary costs and keep good staff. The ADA says that 3 out of 4 dentists are planning to do this in 2023.
Dental Medicaid rests on the back of a minority of dentists, 65% of whom see more than 100 Medicaid patients a year each.
More dentists might get involved if HHS fixed issues such as credentialing, the three-year rule and the fee schedule that hasn't increased since 2007.
Lets help children be healthy
It is for the good and health of Texas children.”
As our state population continues to swell, this situation could be dire for thousands of families…and NOT just children, as many aging or otherwise challenged adults ALSO qualify for Medicaid coverage. So, if you’ve ever considered adding Medicaid coverage to your practice, it seems NOW would be the time…goodness knows, the patients are THERE!