The Power of Partnerships!

Over the past week, many oral health providers and advocates have been poring over the Department of Social Services’ newly proposed regulations on dental care for Medicaid enrollees.

These proposed regulations cover a broad swath of topics related to HUSKY dental care, including the specific services that can be billed/reimbursed, processes for school-based health centers and mobile vans to follow and the development/implementation of marketing plans for dental practices participating in Medicaid.

The responses to the proposed regulations demonstrate the power of partnerships and networks! Given the length of the regulations and competing priorities, a variety of stakeholders - including CHCACT, federally qualified health center administrative and dental leadership, the CT Oral Health Initiative, the CT Association of School-Based Health Centers, school based health center staff, legal services attorneys and other advocates - shared information about what they had read and how they had responded to that. As potential problem areas were identified, they were shared among networks, to gain additional insight and perspective.

CHCACT’s comments are here. Although the official comment period closes today, comments may still be accepted for the next few weeks. If you're interested in sending comments, you can email them to Melanie Dillon at DSS. Additionally, the Department may hold a public hearing, to allow a variety of stakeholders to speak in person about the pros and cons of each section of the proposal.

Stay tuned for more developments on the dental regulations! And please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Deb

Deb Polun, MA

Senior Director for Policy & Outreach