Expenditures for the dental care of indigent children in the Chattanooga project, 1971-1975.

This paper is part of a continuing study of the cost of children's dental care in a publicly funded model program. The Program--the Chattanooga Project--was designed to provide information and experience necessary for the development of similar programs elsewhere in the United States. From 1970 to 1975 comprehensive dental care was provided, at no charge, to an average of 5,500 indigent children per year. Children were treated in private practices (39%), public fixed clinics (20%), and public mobile clinics (41%). Costs were defined as public expenditures for purchasing care from private practitioners or producing care in public practices. As a framework for the analysis, program activities and their respective costs were divided into direct and indirect components. The former relate to the provision of care and the latter to noncare-oriented activities. Direct (indirect) costs per patient were $46.56 ($16.31) in private practices, $40.17 ($16.11) in fixed clinics, and $35.49 ($13.41) in mobile clinics. These results substantiate previous findings from a shorter period. A priori reasons for differences among the three modes in terms of patients' health status or the type of care provided have been specified and are currently under investigation.