Hero Practice Services has published a research paper that addresses the issue of children's oral health and how this health can affect a child over the course of their life.
The paper is called "Protecting Children's Oral Health Care" and is available on the company's website. It makes the following suggestions regarding how to boost access to care for low-income children:
- Tie provider reimbursements closely to private insurance rates to increase provider participation and patient access.
- Establish clear value-based incentives for providers to offer preventive care.
- Support providers who can offer afterhours care for dental emergencies.
- Increase educational programs that reinforce the value of oral hygiene, diet, and regularly scheduled preventive oral health care.
- Preserve programs for student loan repayment for dental providers treating primarily Medicaid patients.
"[We] are committed to providing the best care possible to the children in underserved communities that visit our practices daily," said Hero Practice Services CEO Joshua Gwinn in a statement. "Part of that commitment requires that we advocate for children on a broader spectrum and that is what we hope to accomplish with the release of this research."
