Children's Access to Dental Care Affected by Reimbursement Rates, Dentist Density, and Dentist Participation in Medicaid.

Objectives: To assess the relation between Medicaid reimbursement rates and access to dental care services in the context of dentist density and dentist participation in Medicaid in each state.

Methods: Data were from Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment reports for 2014, Medicaid reimbursement rate in 2013, dentist density in 2014, and dentist participation in Medicaid in 2014. We assessed patterns of mediation or moderation.

Expansion of dental benefits under the Medicare Advantage program.

Uninsured older adults are twice as likely to not receive needed dental care as their insured counterparts. Yet, nearly one-third of older adults have untreated dental caries, and older adults are more likely to have complete tooth loss, periodontal disease, and oral cancer. Moreover, persons sixty-five and older had the lowest percentage of individuals with dental insurance and the highest average out-of-pocket expenses of all persons with a dental visit in 2000.