Shifting dental care to the ER a costly political maneuver
Budget cuts to state dental care programs proposed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be a costly shift that will end up costing state taxpayers more, say inflamed
The governor has proposed eliminating dental care for adults receiving General Assistance, Medical Assistance, MinnesotaCare, and the Critical Access Provider Payment Program, and replacing it with an ER care program on Jan. 1, 2010.
(That's right. Take your toothache or broken tooth to the emergency room. They have to take you.)
"Non-pregnant adults would continue to receive emergency dental care through hospital emergency departments for emergencies such as severe pain, trauma or infections," states the governor's budget proposal on page 102.
There's just one problem.
Hospital emergency rooms aren't set up as dentist's offices. They can supply patients with pain medications for tooth aches and antibiotics for dental infections but they don't extract teeth. "They can't actually perform dental procedures so there will be repeated visits," says Tom Day, director of legislative affairs for the Minnesota Dental Association (MDA).
"It's a short-term cut to make the budget work but it will significantly increase visits to the ER," Day said. "We are absolutely opposed to the cuts."
About 20,000 uninsured people visited emergency rooms for dental care in 2008, according to the MDA. About 7,400 of those dental-related ER visits were to
More on the national trends in dental care and ER visits:
A Healthy Blog: http://blog.hcfama.org/?p=2742
theagle.com: http://tinyurl.com/dj4wzn
Oregnlive.om http://tinyurl.com/dkqxd5
I'm sure this is welcome news to ER staff around the country. Maybe they need to organize and say "enough."
