Assessing the community clinic replacement effect on private Medicaid practices in oral health care within rural environments

Objectives Children in Medicaid/CHIP public coverage programs who reside in rural counties have limited access to dental care services. Shortages of dental professionals in rural areas impede utilization of dental care. Public and private initiatives are attempting to address this crisis. Missourians instituted deregulatory policies and invested in community-based initiatives. Methods Using a Medicaid/CHIP claims administrative dataset from 2004 to 2007, this research explored patterns of utilization to assess the impact of these efforts. Results The number of participating private dental office providers declined over the study period, and the number of children utilizing clinics increased. Trends are being observed within the public health dental care market demonstrating clinics are replacing private dentists as providers of Medicaid/CHIP dental services. Conclusions Allowing greater market entry through deregulation could provide states with greater improvements to their public dental health infrastructure.