Role of Non-Dental Providers in Reducing Disparities in Early Childhood Oral Health: Impact of State Medicaid Policies

项目摘要 幼儿龋齿（ECC），通常被称为蛀牙，是一种可预防的疾病， 对参加医疗补助计划的儿童和其他历史上处于不利地位的群体产生不利影响。接收 早期预防性口腔健康服务（POHS）有助于预防ECC，但 大多数ECC的POHS使用率最低。为了改善这些弱势群体获得POHS的机会， 所有州的医疗补助计划都采用了涵盖基于医生的POHS的政策。尽管人们普遍 通过政策和政策有效性的证据，各国在基于医生的 POHS使用。本项目将探讨以医生为基础的POHS覆盖政策如何影响POHS的使用 随着时间的推移，总体上，以及历史上， 服务不足和高风险人群。我们将使用国家样本来考虑偿还率， 培训要求，以及为基于医生的POHS提供的服务的全面性， 确定最能促进使用POHS和口腔健康结果的政策类型。

Project Summary Early childhood caries (ECC), commonly referred to as tooth decay, is a preventable disease that disproportionally affects children enrolled in Medicaid and other historically disadvantaged groups. Receiving preventive oral health services (POHS) at an early age helps to prevent ECC, yet populations experiencing the most ECC have the lowest use of POHS. To improve access to POHS for these vulnerable populations, nearly all state Medicaid programs have adopted policies covering physician-based POHS. Despite widespread adoption of policies and evidence of policy effectiveness, states exhibit variation in rates of physician-based POHS use. This project will explore how physician-based POHS coverage policies have affected POHS use and oral health outcomes of Medicaid-enrolled infants and toddlers over time, overall, and among historically underserved and high-risk populations. Using a national sample, we will consider the reimbursement rate, training requirement, and comprehensiveness of services provided for physician-based POHS in order to identify the types of policies that best promote use of POHS and oral health outcomes.