Thanks to the advocacy efforts of the Missouri Dental Association, a managed care organization has agreed to remove an authorization tool it was requiring dentists to use prior to using sedation.
The sedation tool — which placed point values on the number of teeth needing treatment, patient ages, medical complexities and prior attempts with nitrous or oral sedation — led to reports of many Missouri children being denied treatment or being referred to offices at great distances, wrote MDA in the January issue of the organization’s magazine, Focus MDA.
The state’s dental community, which includes more than 900 Medicaid providers, shared its concerns with the MO HealthNet Dental Advisory Committee and state’s managed care plans and the requirement was dropped in early 2020.
“This is a big win for the MDA and its members who are Medicaid providers,” added Vicki Wilbers, executive director, MDA. “Sometimes it takes a village to work toward what is best for the profession and the patients and while this is specific to Missouri Medicaid, it’s one more way the MDA continues to try to affect positive change with third party payer interference.”
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