States Have New Flexibility to Add Grownup Dental Care to Important Well being Advantages
By JoAnn Volk and Tara Straw*
Within the closing 2025 Discover of Profit and Fee Parameters, the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies (CMS) provided a brand new choice for states to replace their important well being advantages (EHB) benchmark plan to require protection of routine grownup dental advantages. Analysis has highlighted vital disparities in oral well being outcomes for adults relying on their insurance coverage standing, race and earnings. For instance, Black adults are twice as probably to have untreated dental caries as White adults. Whereas there are a number of drivers of inequities in oral well being, together with restricted entry to dental suppliers, a main barrier to accessing dental providers is the price of care, a barrier that may be decreased with dental insurance coverage.
Of their newest Skilled Perspective for the State Well being & Worth Methods program, CHIR’s JoAnn Volk and Manatt Well being’s Tara Straw present an outline of the newly obtainable flexibility and talk about concerns for states weighing whether or not so as to add a requirement that plans topic to EHB cowl routine grownup dental care.
You possibly can learn the total article right here.
*Tara Straw is a Senior Advisor at Manatt Well being.
