Michigan dentists' attitudes toward Medicaid and an alternative public dental insurance system for children.

PURPOSE

Healthy Kids Dental (HKD) was created as a pilot program of the Michigan State Medicaid program to increase access to care for Medicaid-eligible children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate dentist's attitudes toward Healthy Kids Dental and Medicaid in Michigan.

METHODS

An online survey was sent to practitioners with an e-mail address registered with the Michigan Dental Association (N=4,285).

RESULTS

Surveys were returned from 965 practitioners (~23 percent). Although practitioners were not fully satisfied with the HKD, their satisfaction with the program was significantly higher than their satisfaction with the traditional Medicaid program (P<.001). Sixty-four percent of providers that accept Medicaid limit the number of children seen in some manner, while 28 percent of providers that accept HKD limit the number of children seen. Families with traditional Medicaid who contact an office are significantly less likely to receive treatment for their child than families with HKD insurance who contact the same office (P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Practitioners were more satisfied with programmatic and patient-related factors of the Healthy Kids Dental program than they were with Medicaid. Dentists were more likely to treat children with HKD than children with Medicaid when the parent contacts a dentist in Michigan.