West Virginia nears Medicaid dental crisis

The shortage of dentists willing to accept Medicaid is approaching a crisis for some of the poorest West Virginians, according to a report on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

There are approximately 800 dentists and 42 oral surgeons in West Virginia and 390,000 Medicaid recipients, the broadcasting service reported.

Many of those most in need live in remote rural locations. For example, 12,000 patients from a four-county region travel as many as 80 miles down country roads to Oceana, WV, for dental care.

"I don’t want to call it a crisis but it's pretty close to it," Richard Stevens, West Virginia Dental Association executive director, told the broadcasting service.

In 1994 the state Medicaid program reduced fees it pays dentists by 30%, and it hasn't raised most of them since. As a result, many dentists won't see Medicaid patients.