The impact of underutilization of preventive dental care by adult Medicaid participants.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To ascertain the financial impact associated with the underutilization of preventive dental care for adults enrolled in Medicaid.

Methods

We used adult claims data for patients aged 21-64 in the IBM Watson Marketscan Medicaid database. Enrollees were included if they had at least one dental claim in 2019 and were continuously enrolled between 2014 and 2019. We then evaluated the costs of their dental care in 2019, based on the number of years of preventive dental care they received between 2014 and 2018. We also assessed Emergency Department (ED) utilization for dental conditions, oral surgeries, and dental-related opioid prescriptions.

Results

The average Medicaid enrollee with five continuous years of preventive care prior to 2019 experienced 43% lower cos

SUBMITTER: Okunev I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9303757 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature