A federal judge in Boston has ended a five-year, court-ordered oversight of the state's Medicaid dental program for low-income children after the program demonstrated significant improvement in the delivery of those services, according to a story in the Boston Globe.
In 2005, Health Law Advocates and Greater Boston Legal Services won a federal court suit against MassHealth on behalf of Health Care for All, a consumer group, and children enrolled in the state's Medicaid program. The lawsuit claimed the program's dental services for children were "abysmal."
U.S. District Court Justice Rya Zobel ruled at the time that the program was so inadequate it violated federal law and ordered the state to improve services in cooperation with the health advocates, the Globe reported.
Under the court's oversight, state rules were changed, allowing dentists to cap the number of Medicaid patients they accepted. The reimbursement system was also improved so that payments to dentists were timelier, according to the Globe.
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