The School-Based Oral Health Program, used in 10 local school districts from 2006 to 2009, was designed to bring the number of kids with cavities closer to 42 percent — a health benchmark set by the federal government.

But despite the school program, the percentage of Pierce County youngsters with cavities remained high: 56 percent overall and 65 percent for low income children.

There was “no evidence” the program reduced cavities in the total population of children, the Health Department’s internal assessment of the program concluded.

In the program, Health Department staff members examined the teeth of nearly 75,000 second- and third-graders, said David Vance, a Health Department division director. Children without cavities were offered a fluoride varnish or a dental sealant, Vance said. Those with decay were referred to low-cost dental providers.

Several factors contributed to the disappointing results, examiners said. Among them:

–Administrative problems. Only 18 percent of children who qualified for dental treatment received it.

–Failed sealant. Only about half of sealed molars remained fully sealed a year later.

–Economic recession: Tough times might have canceled out improvements

–High mobility: Only 28 percent of students assessed the first year were present for assessment two years later.

The Health Department will continue to explore strategies to prevent cavities in Pierce County children, Vance said.

Officials want to expand the sealant program to more children, find better ways to obtain parental approval and figure out a better way to apply sealants so they stay on molars longer.

Next year, Vance said, local dentists and their staffs will visit the schools instead of Health Department employees.

“We’ve reached out to private providers,” he said. “Rather than having Health Department staff go into the schools, we’ll be the ones coordinating the care. We’ll act as a clearinghouse. We think that will be a much more effective role for us.”

A “Smile Survey,” conducted by the Health Department in 2005, concluded the severity of dental decay was worse in Pierce County than the rest of the state.

In that survey, 37 percent of second and third graders had a history of decay in seven or more teeth (“rampant decay”), compared with 21 percent in all of Washington.

Among low-income preschool children, 39 percent had a history of decay in their upper front teeth, compared with 18 percent in the whole state.

A 2010 Smile Survey has just been finished and the results will be released later this month.

“That should give us a much better idea of where we are with the oral health of kids in Pierce County,” Vance said.

Rob Carson: 253-597-8693 rob.carson@thenewstribune.com

2010 JUN 6 – ( NewsRx.com) — Two community dental clinics that provide much-needed services to low-income people who lack access to care will receive a $10,000 grant from Delta Dental of Pennsylvania (see also Managed Care).

The grant will directly reimburse clinic dentists for their services to patients who have unmet dental needs and who are unable to pay on their own for those services.

The first grant installment of $5,000 was presented Thursday to the James W. Barner Community Dental Clinics of the Partnership for a Healthy Community, which provides oral health care services for those with limited access to care due to medical conditions, disability or limited financial resources. The two clinics collectively serve about 7,500 patients a year, including more than 4,000 children.

The Partnership was created by and operates as an affiliate of Altoona Regional Health System. The children’s clinic is located in and operated in partnership with the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center.

Although about half of the clinics’ patients are beneficiaries under dental Medicaid or Medicaid Managed Care, many lack any financial resources to help pay for care. The clinic provides these patients approximately $100,000 per year in services such as dental screenings, restorations and emergency care.

“Our clinics are a great story of good people coming together to help neighbors in need,” said Jerry Murray, president and CEO of Altoona Regional Health System. “We have been blessed by the hard work of devoted and community-minded individuals who turned a dream into reality.

“Generous partners such as Delta Dental help us keep the dream alive. And we thank Dr. Donald Betar, clinical director, who was instrumental in securing this grant.”

The clinics serve an eight-county area (Blair, Centre, Huntingdon, Fulton, Bedford, Cambria, Clearfield, and Clinton). They are the area’s largest provider of oral health care services to patients with limited resources.

“These two clinics routinely absorb the cost of urgent and emergency care for the dentally underserved,” said Gary D. Radine, Delta Dental president and CEO. “We’re pleased that this grant will go directly toward paying for this care. The grant is consistent with our mission to expand access to care for as many people as possible.” About Delta Dental of Pennsylvania Delta Dental of Pennsylvania (www.deltadentalins.com) is part of a holding company system whose affiliated companies, along with Delta Dental of New York, provide dental benefits to nearly 25 million people in 15 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They are all part of the Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA), based in Oak Brook, Ill. DDPA consists of 39 Delta Dental member companies licensed in all 50 states. The association collectively covers nearly 54 million of the 176 million people nationwide with private dental insurance, making it by far the largest national system of dental plans. About the Altoona Regional Partnership and the James W. Barner Community Dental Clinics The Altoona Regional Partnership for a Healthy Community (www.altoonaregional.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation for the Altoona area, which is demarcated as an underserved rural area. In 1999, the Partnership and the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center opened the dental clinics – one for pediatrics and one for adults. Directed by Dr. Donald Betar, the clinics offer free dental screenings, restorations and emergency care for dental Medicaid and Medicaid Managed Care beneficiaries as well as uninsured children and adults and Medical Assistance recipients in Blair, Centre, Huntingdon, Fulton, Bedford, Cambria, Clearfield, and Clinton counties. The clinics serve 7,500 patients a year, including more than 4,000 children.

Keywords: Dentistry, Health Policy, Managed Care, Medicaid, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania.

ADA Launches Community Dental Health Coordinator Pilot Program at Temple University

CHICAGO, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Dental Association (ADA) has signed an agreement with Temple University to train new dental team members as part of a pilot program to improve the oral health in underserved communities.

The Community Dental Health Coordinator (CDHC) is a member of the dental health team who works in communities where residents have limited access to dental care to improve their oral health.

The CDHC provides a limited range of preventive dental care services — including screenings and fluoride treatments. However, of greater importance to these communities, the CDHC will help patients navigate the health system and access care by a dentist or an appropriate clinic and engage in educational activities to improve community members’ oral health habits.

Temple will recruit and train CDHCs from urban locations in Philadelphia over the next two years, returning them to their communities to work as dental team members under the supervision of dentists.

Although the CDHC is a new dental team member whose merits are not yet known, many studies of the community health worker (CHW) model indicate that they can make significant contributions to a community. Because the CDHC will function much like a CHW, the ADA believes that they, too, will have a positive impact on the oral health of their communities through education and outreach.

“We are delighted to welcome Temple’s participation,” said ADA President Dr. Ron Tankersley. “The pilot at Temple will help us understand the effectiveness of a dental health coordinator in underserved urban settings.”

Dr. Amid Ismail, dean of Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry and one of the architects of the CDHC program, explained why the program is seeking to place CDHC trainees in their own communities.

“Our aim is to ensure that the coordinator is able to bridge the gap between local cultures and health care systems. The CDHC can help improve people’s oral health habits and help patients navigate the social and bureaucratic barriers that prevent them from gaining access to available dental health services,” Dr. Ismail said.

Temple is the third of three pilot CDHC program sites. Two other pilot programs are directed by University of Oklahoma, which is training CDHCs from rural areas, and the University of California at Los Angeles, which, in conjunction with Salish Kootenai College in Montana, is training students from American Indian communities.

The ADA has funded the program, which will train six students per site each year.

About the American Dental Association

The not-for-profit ADA is the nation’s largest dental association, representing more than 157,000 dentist members. The premier source of oral health information, the ADA has advocated for the public’s health and promoted the art and science of dentistry since 1859. The ADA’s state-of-the-art research facilities develop and test dental products and materials that have advanced the practice of dentistry and made the patient experience more positive. The ADA Seal of Acceptance long has been a valuable and respected guide to consumer dental care products. The monthly Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) is the ADA’s flagship publication and the best-read scientific journal in dentistry. For more information about the ADA, visit the Association’s Web site at www.ada.org.

SOURCE American Dental Association

Credit: American Dental Association

Recently honored as the title sponsor at Sealants for Smiles 2nd Annual Gala Benefit held at the Grand America in Salt Lake City, Dental Select was recognized for its 2009 contribution of more than $400,000. This commitment will allow Sealants for Smiles to expand school visits into more Utah counties, increase the number of oral health presentations, and ultimately place more sealants on the 2nd and 6th grade children who need them.

During the 2007 and 2008 school year, Dental Select contributed more than $420,000 to Sealants for Smiles. As the sole administrator for this program, Dental Select continually provides Sealants for Smiles with necessary technology expenses, an office facility, staff wages and salaries in order to allow 100% of donations to go directly toward advancing program services.

In the past two years, Sealants for Smiles has placed more than 31,000 dental sealants on children who were screened with moderate to urgent dental needs. Because of Dental Select’s contributions, Sealants for Smiles can continue to expand and see a larger percentage of underprivileged children each year to improve Utah’s community youth.

Dental Select, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is the largest dental provider in the state of Utah, and provides benefits to more than 5,000 client groups across Utah, Texas and Nevada. Dental Select specializes in affordable and flexible dental plans, offering a wide array of discount, PPO, Indemnity, and self-funded dental plans. With over 20 years experience, Dental Select has been a recurring Utah 100 company, and on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing companies. More information regarding Dental Select is available by visiting the company’s web site at www.dentalselect.com or by calling 800-999-9789.

Children’s Dental Health Project

Meg Booth, 202-441-0299

Logo: http://www.cdhp.org

The Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) today applauded the U.S. Senate for recognizing the importance of oral health with the introduction of its health reform bill. Unveiled last night, the Senate’s bill includes a historic commitment to strengthen oral health among the nation’s vulnerable populations, and is a major step toward matching public resources to counter the “silent epidemic” of poor oral health among America’s children that was the subject of a warning from the U.S. Surgeon General more than a decade ago.

“The Senate has taken a historic step toward safeguarding the oral health of millions of Americans,” said CDHP chair and founder Dr. Burt Edelstein. “From prevention and treatment to more effective use of data and workforce development, the Senate’s health care reform bill is a strong commitment to children and other populations who are most vulnerable to dental disease. In particular, Senator Jeff Bingaman, in addition to Senators Snowe, Rockefeller, Dodd, and Reid have been champions for provisions in this bill that have the potential to improve dental health for children and families across the nation.”

The Senate bill includes the following oral health care measures:

– Expanded coverage. Insurance coverage for pediatric oral health services and eligibility for preventive oral health services without co-payments.

– Prevention. Dental disease prevention initiatives including public education, school-based sealant programs in all 50 states, and research grants for dental caries management.

– Tracking and monitoring. Resources for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other organizations that track of oral health and the use of dental services among pregnant women and other vulnerable populations.

– Workforce development. Expanded training programs and education resources for general, pediatric and public health dentists and those who train and educate future dental caregivers in rural areas and among underserved populations; and demonstration grants for alternative dental health providers.

– Safety net improvements. Initiatives to provide more access to care including federally-funded school-based health centers and creation of a commission to study oral healthcare workforce capacity.

– Infrastructure improvements. Public health infrastructure improvements in the states to bolster public oral health programs, including CDC authorization to establish oral health leadership and program guidance, oral health data collection and interpretation, a multi-dimensional delivery system for oral health, and science-based programs to improve oral health.

The House’s health care reform bill passed earlier this month contains many of the same measures, which Edelstein said points to a bicameral commitment to improving oral health.

“As the bill moves toward passage in the Senate and a conference with the U.S. House, it is vital to preserve these provisions,” said Edelstein. “We are confident that members of the House and Senate will remain steadfast in their commitment to oral health and will work together to ensure that the oral health measures contained in this legislation remain strong.”

About the Children’s Dental Health Project:

The Children’s Dental Health Project advances policies that improve children’s access to oral health through research-driven policies and innovative solutions by engaging a broad base of partners committed to children and oral health. For additional information please visit, www.cdhp.org.

This new agreement allows Delta SkyMiles members to earn miles when they join any discount dental plan from DentalPlans.com.

Active SkyMiles members will earn 1,500 miles for joining a family discount dental plan and 1,000 miles for joining an individual discount dental plan. DentalPlans.com is also offering SkyMiles members up to 2,000 miles when joining, for a limited time.

The 40 percent levy on health care costs above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families passed the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Oct. 13. If the tax were to become law, experts said, government employees in New York would be hit hard because their powerful unions have negotiated benefits that go beyond medical and prescription drug coverage to include, among others, dental and vision.

The tax would be paid by insurers who then are expected to pass it along in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays.

“A lot of state workers would qualify because of the dental and vision, and the fact that health care is the fastest growing expense,” said Kenneth Brynien, head of the 59,000-member state Public Employees Federation.

For and against

Supporters of the “Cadillac” tax, proposed to take effect in 2013, said it would act as a brake on runaway health care costs. They argued that employers and unions would scale back benefits to avoid the tax thresholds.

Employers “then would convert the resulting savings into higher wages or fringe benefits for their employees,” said Paul N. Van de Water of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

But opponents of the tax predicted widespread erosion of health benefits. They said people with comprehensive insurance plans would be unfairly pitted against those with lesser ones, in order to pay for coverage for the uninsured.

“You’re penalizing people for having good health care benefits . . . and pushing everybody down to the lowest common denominator,” said Stephen Madarasz, spokesman for the 85,000-member Civil Service Employees Association, the largest union of state workers.

Sympathy for the hardships of bureaucrats, teachers and police may be muted, however.

“These people have some nerve,” said Fred Gorman, of Nesconset, an advocate for school property tax relief. “They pay next to nothing in premiums. They earn much more than the average homeowner, and now they want sympathy because someone says, ‘You got to pay taxes on your health benefits.’ “

Nonetheless, the public-sector unions, including CSEA and PEF, are sounding an alarm over the tax and lobbying to derail it.

The fight in Washington has revived questions about why government employees have such robust health care and whether it can be sustained when public treasuries have been depleted by the recession.

A review of benefits shows large disparities between the public and private sectors, with the exception of top executives and unionized manufacturing workers, who often have generous coverage.

Employee contributions to premiums also are lower in government. State workers and teachers pay between 5 percent and 20 percent depending on coverage type. Suffolk workers and Nassau workers hired before January 2002 pay nothing.

Unions are quick to point out that wages for government service are lower than for comparable work in business. Generous benefits, they said, offset smaller salaries and were won through tough bargaining.

“People went into public service even though they knew the salary was less because they knew there was [job] security, health benefits and a pension,” said Brynien, of the state Public Employees Federation.

Politicians back richer health benefits because they often rely on union contributions and get-out-the-vote operations to stay in office. There’s also less risk of voter backlash with benefit gains, compared to wage increases, political observers said.

“No working politician will stand up to the public unions,” said Richard Epstein, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.

Tackling LI’s costs

Nassau and Suffolk officials have been working with unions to rein in health care expenses. But experts said costs are higher on Long Island and in New York City than many places, in part because of state mandates.

The Senate legislation acknowledges this and provides a limited remedy. Tax thresholds for New York and 16 other high-cost states would be set higher in the first year and gradually decline to the national level over the next two years.

Over time, the tax would affect more government workers and people in the private sector. “We’re going to get hit and so is just about everyone on Long Island who has health insurance,” said Carl Korn, spokesman for the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers union.

In Suffolk, passing along the tax would be complicated by the county’s self-insured status, with benefit plans jointly administered by labor and management. Any change would require negotiations with the unions.

Jeffrey L. Tempera, Suffolk’s director of labor relations, said, “I don’t see how the county or any municipality could eat those costs.”

Taxing “Cadillac” health plans

Legislation adopted by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee includes tax on high-cost health insurance plans sponsored by employers, beginning in 2013. Here’s how it would work:

-A 40 percent tax imposed on health plan costs above $8,000 a year for individual coverage and $21,000 for a family coverage.

-Retirees age 55 and up, and members of high-risk occupations such as police and construction would be exempt unless their plans were above $9,850 for individuals or $26,000 for families.

-Increases in these thresholds would be tied to the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers, plus 1 percentage point.

-Insurers pay the tax but likely would pass along the expense to workers.

-In New York and 16 other states with the highest health care costs, the thresholds would be set higher in 2013, and gradually decline to the national level by 2016. The thresholds in 2013 would be:

—Individual coverage: $9,600

—Family coverage: $25,200

High-risk professions and retirees:

—Individual coverage: $11,820

—Family coverage: $31,200

Note: A health plan’s cost is based on more than medical and prescription drug coverage. The total value also includes coverage for dental, vision and supplementary medical/catastrophic events, along with reimbursements under flexible spending accounts for medical expenses or health reimbursement arrangements and employer contributions to employee health savings accounts.

Elizabeth Risberg, 415-972-8423

erisberg@delta.org

Delta Dental of California today announced the appointment of Benjamin Lowry as director of Southern California sales.

Lowry brings more than 15 years of experience in sales, employee benefits and consulting, including eight years with VSP, where he was responsible for sales and account management in Southern California. Prior to that, Lowry was a sales consultant for Automatic Data Processing and a systems consultant for Hewitt Associates. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and has completed graduate coursework at Pepperdine University.

As Delta Dental’s regional sales director, Lowry will supervise sales account executives in the company’s Cerritos and San Diego sales offices.

Delta Dental of California, Pennsylvania and its affiliated companies within its holding company system, along with Delta Dental of New York, are all part of the Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA), based in Oak Brook, Ill. DDPA consists of 39 Delta Dental member companies licensed in all 50 states. The association collectively covers nearly 52 million of the 173 million people nationwide with private dental insurance, making it by far the largest national system of dental plans.

“We want to create opportunities for children to be healthy, and we hope the end result is that it’ll set children up for success so that when they start school, they’re better prepared to succeed,” said Rebecca Clancy, executive director of Smart Start, one of 21 local agencies receiving funding from the Finney County United Way’s annual campaign, which has a goal of raising $550,000 this year. “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel — we try to be involved in what’s going on in the community already, to bridge gaps in services that might not be getting enough funding.”

The director of the local children’s agency said Smart Start’s dollars are designed to be flexible to cater to the needs of a particular community.

The local children’s agency aims to ensure that Kansas children are healthy and prepared to succeed in school and does so by providing flexible funding to communities and organizations that maintain programs and projects that focus on early childhood health and education for children from birth to age 5.

Clancy said her agency’s receipt of funds is not only pumped back directly into local programs but also allows the educational organization that serves 12 other neighboring counties from its Garden City office to demonstrate local fiscal support so that it can acquire larger state funds.

“(The United Way’s support) helps us secure bigger grant dollars that we bring to southwest Kansas,” Clancy said. “Of course, each year these dollars are up for debate as the state government sees other shortfalls, so we work really hard to preserve those dollars so we can invest in our children here, build secure homes and have them go to school, so they can contribute to the local economy.”

Though Smart Start serves organizations in neighboring counties including Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita, local United Way dollars are used only for programs within Finney County, Clancy said.

The agency, which is fiscally sponsored by the Russell Child Development Center, hasn’t yet identified where about $2,000 — about 2 percent of its operating budget — in United Way funding will go this year, but in past years, financial support has been directed to Lifetime Smiles, a dental program for kids operated through United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, and Wee Readers, a story time program at the Finney County Public Library.

Clancy said she appreciates the United Way’s help to meet the special challenges the regional agency faces in this part of the state.

“We serve a larger part of the state than some of the other Smart Starts in Kansas, and many of our citizens have to overcome transportation barriers, so we’re very mobile, and we work really hard to overcome that,” Clancy said. “We also work to be helpful to non-English speaking residents, because we do have a higher population of people who don’t speak English or speak multiple other languages. We work really hard to translate materials and bridge language barriers to help families get what they need.”

Other organizations receiving United Way funding include the following partner agencies: United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties, Community Day Care, Emmaus House, Spirit of the Plains CASA, Russell Child Development Center, Garden City Area Chapter of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Miles of Smiles, Kansas Children’s Service League Head Start, United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas, Catholic Social Service, Family Crisis Services Inc., Meals on Wheels, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association, Garden City Family YMCA, The Garden City Recreation Commission Playground Program, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Santa Fe Trail Council Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.

Smart Start

Contact: Rebecca Clancy, director

Address: 714 Ballinger St.

Phone: 275-1510

Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Web site: http://www.smartstartswks.org

Credit: The Garden City Telegram, Kan.

In turn, DentalPlans.com will offer Connectyx’s MedFlash(TM) product to its members. This collaboration is a natural fit as both companies offer products that give their members the opportunity to enhance their overall health. MedFlash(TM) members will have access to special savings on discount dental plans, cost-effective dental insurance alternatives, while DentalPlans.com members will have access to an affordable, portable solution for keeping easily accessible, up-to-date personal health records.

“Our collaboration with DentalPlans.com is a win-win situation because it enables both of our organizations to increase our respective membership bases. I am happy to offer our customers the ability to access quality and affordable dental care with discount dental plans from DentalPlans.com,” said Ronn Schuman, Connectyx President and CEO.

“We’re excited to offer the MedFlash product to our members,” said Evelyn Hennick, Director of Business Development at DentalPlans.com. “This product can help members easily access personal health records – enhancing their overall health care experience – and that is a primary goal at DentalPlans.com.”