Dental Advocates Fear Dentist Exodus From Denti-Cal - California Healthline
Dental Advocates Fear Dentist Exodus From Denti-Cal - California Healthline:
In California where hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to begin water fluoridation:
"Currently, about 4,000 of California's 34,000 active dentists provide 97% of all services to Denti-Cal (gov't insurance for low-come residents) beneficiaries, according to the Dental Health Foundation.
That number is dropping, but nobody is sure how fast."
"Rosenstein said documentation requirements were reduced in response to lawsuits. As a result, 'the dental program became a very high fraud area. We had common situations in which providers -- sometimes not even dentists -- would pay children and parents to come in for dental treatment. They'd provide a large number of unnecessary dental procedures -- pinprick fillings in kids' teeth -- and bill for them.
'We took aggressive action and, unfortunately because of fraud and abuse, we increased documentation standards,' Rosenstein said.
In California where hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to begin water fluoridation:
"Currently, about 4,000 of California's 34,000 active dentists provide 97% of all services to Denti-Cal (gov't insurance for low-come residents) beneficiaries, according to the Dental Health Foundation.
That number is dropping, but nobody is sure how fast."
"Rosenstein said documentation requirements were reduced in response to lawsuits. As a result, 'the dental program became a very high fraud area. We had common situations in which providers -- sometimes not even dentists -- would pay children and parents to come in for dental treatment. They'd provide a large number of unnecessary dental procedures -- pinprick fillings in kids' teeth -- and bill for them.
'We took aggressive action and, unfortunately because of fraud and abuse, we increased documentation standards,' Rosenstein said.
posted by FluorideNews at 10:25 AM
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