Dental Care Now Available for People on Medicaid

Most adults in the Colorado don’t know that they have access to dental care. The Northeast Colorado Oral Health Coalition wants to spread the word about the issue and to encourage people on Medicaid to find out about the dental coverage benefit and schedule a visit to a dental provider.

Qualified adults who are enrolled in Colorado Medicaid have access to dental benefits since April 1, 2014. The new benefit will give adults with Medicaid aged 21 and above a yearly dental benefit of up to $1,000 in dental services. In the past, only emergency dental services were covered for adults with Medicaid.

The dental benefit will allow adults on Medicaid to get cleanings, diagnostic imaging services, and minor fillings. Several studies have shown that healthy teeth play a vital part in improving a person’s economic opportunities, self-esteem, and quality of life.

The new dental benefit is allowed by legislation that was passed last spring and will be implemented in two phases. The first phase was implemented last April 1, 2014 and gave access to basic adult dental preventive, treatment planning, and diagnostic and minor restorative dental services, such minor fillings and x-rays.

Then on July 1, 2014, more adult services will be restored such as partial dentures, root canals, crowns, root planning, and periodontal scaling.

The Joint Budget Committee has approved funding for complete dentures in the fiscal year 2014 to 2015 state budget. In order to find local providers that accept CHP+ and Medicaid, the Northeast Colorado Oral Health Coalition has a directory of dental providers in the northeast region. The directory is found in the website of the Northeast Colorado Health Department. Qualified adults can also look for dental providers in their location by going to the website of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

Photo by Michael Baltz [Public domain], undefined