Medicaid

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Uninformed

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A 3 yr. old of a young mother goes to the hospital and has cavities in most teeth. Between crowns, extractions, etc. it takes 3hrs to complete the work.

A special needs patient has similar problems. He needs several root canals and needs some restorative work. Again it takes 3 hours to complete the work.

Operative rooms cost about $6000 per hour so for the 6-8 hrs of work, the cost is about $50,000. This is happening all around the country, but just at this one location, the cost would run the taxpayers $15million based on a 300 day work schedule.

What are the problems that you see? What are the solutions?
 
I think there are local dentists that take Medicaid and get paid much less than your total. I would suspect that a hospital would give the kids some meds and refer them to a dental office.
 
Hospital? Tell them to head over to the closest dental school. Before they leave, have the woman's tubes tied to prevent her from having any more children if she cannot take care of a child.
 
I would like to see some stats on how much we are spending on dental care in hospitals. Most of my students fit the demographics of the op. Most of them get free dental care though donated care or government programs but I have never heard of them going to a hospital. As a country, we need to transition less urgent situations away from hospitals as they are the least cost effective place to receive care. That goes for insured, uninsured, and those on govt assistance.
 
Who needs to spend money for dental in hospitals when texas spends more than all other 49 states combinded on orthadontia?

channel 8 in dallas did a story on how much is spent of braces for medicaid kids in Texas. Staggering and the head of the agency who authirizes it is a complete idiot.

I wonder how parents who don't qualify for medicaid but who also can't afford braces for their own kids will feel seeing their taxes being used for braces for others?The Link
from link
Federal auditors are examining Medicaid charges for dental braces for Texas children.
The audit comes after a Dallas television station found the state spent as much on orthodontic services last year as all 49 other U.S. states combined.

According to state records obtained by WFAA-TV, Texas spent $184 million on orthodontic treatment for children under Medicaid last year. That's nine times more than California spent during the same time period.

The state says the federal-state program for the elderly, poor and disabled is not supposed to pay for children to get braces for cosmetic reasons"
 
Providing reasonable access to traditional and most efficient methods of health care delivery smacks of government intrusion and Obamacare. As a society we would have to make a government decision to care for people. I think the conservative course would be to tell the underearning to go find a way or suffer and quit bitching. Too bad the only way they can find is the emergency room which government can mandate take all comers even if they will never pay. God forbid we have big brother doing socialized medicine.
 
I am a medical doctor, not a dentist, but the OP is off by a long shot.

The costs for OR time paid by Medicaid was $550 period (that was the old rate; it is public information, so you can look it up). This is usually done in a surgery center. It might be a bit higher than the hospital. There is also a cost for the anesthesiologist.

Also, any fillings or crowns necessary if done in the office cost the state the same amount as doing them in the surgery center. (It may take multiple visits to do the work though). It is just that children with lots of fillings or crowns needed, it is much more humane to put the child to sleep.
 
Isn't the $6k/hr an inflated price they use in order to negotiate payments from insurance companies and the gov't programs?
 
People confuse cost and price so perhaps you are right and she gave me the price rather than the cost to the hospital. I wouldn't necessarily say it is inflated, however. The salary of an anesthesiologist and nurse anesthesiologist is about $165K each per year. There are fixed costs for the hospital which includes a certain number of nurses in pre and post op and in the operating room and administration. The equipment and supplies are expensive as is the maintenance.
 
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