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)，通常被称为龋齿，是一种可预防的疾病， 不成比例地影响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。接收 在早期预防口腔健康服务(POHS)有助于预防ECC，但经历 大多数ECC对POH的使用率最低。为了改善这些弱势群体获得POH的机会，近 所有州的医疗补助计划都采用了涵盖以医生为基础的POH的政策。尽管广泛存在 政策的采用和政策有效性的证据，各州表现出以医生为基础的比率的差异 POHS使用。本项目将探讨以医生为基础的保健政策如何影响保健服务的使用。 以及参加医疗补助的婴儿和学步儿童随时间、总体和历史的口腔健康结果 服务不足和高危人群。利用全国样本，我们将考虑偿还率， 培训要求和为以医生为基础的POH提供的服务的全面性，以便 确定最能促进POHs使用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.