ACA Facts: Oral Health
October 16, 2012
The ACA has created various oral health related initiatives at the state level to ensure affordable access to dental care for both children and adults, including those that address coverage, prevention, oral health infrastructure and surveillance, and training the dental health workforce by 2014. At this time, the initiatives fall into two categories: those that are funded by the law, and those that are authorized subject to funding. Among the funded initiatives, key provisions include insurance benefits for children under state health insurance exchanges (i.e. requiring children's oral health services to be classified as an essential health benefit), dental-only plans, and creation of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment Access Commission (MAC-PAC) which requires a review of provider reimbursement rates (e.g. dental) and provides funding to providers to carry out work. Currently, authorized (but unfunded) provisions fall into three categories: oral health infrastructure, prevention and treatment, and workforce (e.g. training evaluations).
