Category: Dental Insurance & Medicaid

Let’s all be clear about the 93% fee increase that started Jan. 1, 2024 for Ohio dental Medicaid. It would never have happened without the efforts of the Ohio Dental Association. Individual dentists in the state could not have done it. Small group practices would have failed and certainly, large DSOs could not have gotten this fee increase ... [continue reading]

Dental insurance is often instrumental in getting patients into a dental office because it assists them in paying for dental services they may otherwise not obtain. Dental insurance is also, unfortunately, a source of aggravation and frustration for dentists when certain claims for dental services are handled in a way that is disagreeable to the ... [continue reading]

Based on calls the Ohio Dental Association is receiving from ODA member dental offices, it appears that some patients are attempting to lower their financial obligations to their dentist by citing the No Surprises Act. In each instance, however, the patient’s contention that the dentist had to waive some of their outstanding balance because of ... [continue reading]

Last month, I wrote my column on the ODA membership survey conducted in the fall of 2023. To review, we commission an independent survey research firm to conduct a broad, comprehensive survey of the entire ODA membership periodically. We did such surveys in 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2018 and again in 2023. While the surveys have ... [continue reading]

Early in the year, the Ohio Dental Association and Ohio Academy of Pediatric Dentistry penned a joint letter to Maureen Corcoran, Director of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, concerning coding practices and reimbursement levels for dental treatment that must be provided in hospital or ambulatory surgical center operating room settings for patients ... [continue reading]

For many dentists, terminating a participating provider agreement with a preferred provider organization (PPO), dental health maintenance organization (DHMO) or other type of third-party payer can be a nerve-wracking experience, largely attributable to a fear of losing patients who are covered by the plan the dentist is terminating with. If these ... [continue reading]

The American Dental Association has released the CDT 2024, which took effect Jan. 1, 2024. The new CDT 2024 is the HIPAA-recognized code set for dentistry. The ADA offers several CDT coding products, including books, training tools and an app, which can be found at ... [continue reading]

The new Ohio Medicad Fees are now finalized and effective January 1, 2024. They represent the culmination of a significant amount of work performed by grassroots Ohio Dental Association member dentists, the ODA lobbying team, Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM), Gov. Mike DeWine, the Ohio General Assembly and other oral health care advocates. The ... [continue reading]

Before I was ever in leadership with organized dentistry, before I was a dentist, and before I even knew what my life’s work would look like, I was part of a community – a group of individuals existing together through residential, familial and relational proximity. They were there when I was born; they were in my school and in my church. No ... [continue reading]

The number of people covered by Medicare Advantage Plans in the U.S. has increased significantly in recent years. In fact, enrollment in publicly funded dental benefit plans, namely Medicaid and Medicare Advantage Plans, represent the segments of the dental benefits marketplace that have seen the most significant growth in recent years as ... [continue reading]