Yarmouth dentist Michael Dowling told the Legislature’s health and human services committee on Wednesday that a child he recently performed surgery on waited nearly nine months to get an appointment, despite having severe oral health problems.
“He needed four fillings, four extractions and eight crowns,” he said about his 5-year-old patient.
Dowling testified during a public hearing on a proposed bill, L.D. 2123, that could help reduce wait times for pediatric dentistry for children and increase the reimbursement rate for general anesthesia. The bill is sponsored by Democratic House Speaker Ryan Fecteau.
Dowling said the reimbursement rates are so low that it limits the number of surgeries that can be performed. It’s typical for children on MaineCare, the state’s name for Medicaid, to wait several months to more than a year for care when general anesthesia is needed, he said.
Dowling said under the current rate, set by the state, dentists lose $300 to $400 for every hour of general anesthesia.
“With current anesthesia rates, every additional case increases our losses,” said Dowling, who opened a surgery center last year at his practice, which mostly serves pediatric MaineCare patients. “The more we provide, the more money we lose. We are not asking to profit from this care. We are simply asking to break even.”
Therese Cahill, executive director of the Maine Dental Association, said if the bill is approved, bottlenecks would be alleviated because there are dentists who want to help, but can’t because of the low reimbursement rates. It’s unclear how many children would be impacted, but Cahill said in a previous interview with the Press Herald that thousands of children need general anesthesia for dental work.
“These wait times would definitely be decreased for children across the state,” Cahill said on Wednesday to the committee.
The cost to increase the reimbursement rate would be $130,000 per year statewide using taxpayer dollars, according to the fiscal note attached to the bill.
Maine Department of Health and Human Services officials did not testify on Wednesday, but submitted a letter to the committee from Michelle Probert, director of the Office of MaineCare Services. Probert’s letter said there are some technical problems with the bill’s language and recommended waiting for the department’s MaineCare rate review process that’s set to occur this year.
“The department shares the interest of ensuring access to dental services,” Probert wrote in the letter.
Reimbursement rates can be changed by the state health department or through legislation. No vote was taken by the committee on Wednesday. Committee votes are typically done during follow-up workshop meetings.
