BOSTON – Advocates for poor children complained at a public hearing yesterday that a proposed reimbursement increase that would add as little as $2 for a tooth filling for dentists who take MassHealth insurance patients will do little to increase participation in the program, which most dentists in the state have rejected.

Unfortunately for those trying to make the case for higher reimbursements on behalf of some 370,000 children going without dental care statewide, the state official who proposed the limited increases and will have the final say on their adoption, interim Department of Public Health Commissioner Paul J. Cote Jr., did not hear their criticisms.

Mr. Cote, who also is commissioner of the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy and in that capacity proposed and issued the new reimbursement schedule, did not attend the only public hearing he scheduled on the plan.

He said later yesterday that it was unfortunate that he could not attend the public hearing but he expected to be briefed on the testimony from two assistants who sat in on the hearing. He said he instead went to a meeting of a legislative committee discussing ways to avoid discrimination in health care services.

The revisions come after several years of crisis for the program, which has seen most of the dentists in the state refusing to accept MassHealth-insured children for dental care, citing the low reimbursement rates.

The state is defending itself in a federal lawsuit claiming that the program unlawfully denies poor children reasonable access to dental care in Massachusetts.

In Worcester, only a handful of practicing dentists accept children with MassHealth, and statewide only 30 percent of the children whose families meet the eligibility requirements for the program actually receive dental care. The rest are believed to suffer without preventive care or dental treatment when they have toothaches and cavities, as only one in eight dentists accepts MassHealth patients.

Those who testified at the hearing trashed Mr. Cote’s proposed new reimbursement schedule, which would increase spending in the dental program from $88 million to $101 million annually. They said the increases are so minimal they would not lure any additional dentists to participate in the program. Under state regulations, dentists are allowed to refuse patients relying on MassHealth.

Mary Lou Sutter of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children submitted testimony saying the proposed increases were inadequate to increase participation by dentists and would only meet the rates charged by 10 percent of the dentists in New England.

Janice B. Yost, chairwoman of the Oral Health Advocacy Taskforce Steering Committee and president of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, which has worked to set up several reduced-fee clinics as an alternative in Central Massachusetts, said, “We know that the proposed fee increases will only bring the MassHealth dental fees to the 10th percentile” of dentists charging the lowest rates in the state.

Experience in other states, she said, have shown the state needs to offer rates equal to those charged by 75 percent of the dentists in the state.

Ms. Yost said about 370,000 children in the state whose families’ incomes are low enough to qualify for MassHealth “are not able to see a dentist or a hygienist for cleanings, sealants and treatment” under the current reimbursement rates.

A 2003 survey, she said, found that 40 percent of the state’s third-graders had untreated decay and one in six had “urgent needs requiring immediate care.” She said children who suffer from cavities often fail to thrive as toddlers; miss school, which inhibits their learning; develop speech problems and poor self- concept, and experience poor nutrition, other diseases and disability.

The proposed increases, she said, “fall far short” of those needed to enlist enough dentists to “ensure access to care.”

Karen Rafeld, assistant director of the Massachusetts Dental Society, said Mr. Cote’s proposed rate changes were “too little, too late.” She said the increases of $1 per exam and $2 per two-surface filling would not attract any new dentists to participate in the program. Moreover, she said, the entire program needs to be revamped to eliminate “additional negative aspects” that are keeping dentists from participating. She said they include administrative hassles; the inability to limit the number of MassHealth patients, once a dentist accepts some; and “abuse” of dentists by administrators of the program. Of 4,700 dentists in the state, she said only 470 see any MassHealth patients.

Mr. Cote yesterday declined to answer any questions about his evaluation of the program, the rationale behind the new reimbursement rates, or problems facing the program, because of the pending federal court case against the state.

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