When a dental surgery center in Independence opens next month, it will be the first in the state exclusively for Medicaid patients.
The center, which will provide dental care requiring anesthesia to children and adults, wouldn’t have been possible even five years ago, before Missouri began an overhaul of the dental care offered through its Medicaid program, MO HealthNet, said Dr. Aaron Bumann, a pediatric dentist who is one of the center’s founders.
Until recently, Missouri adults receiving Medicaid could only get oral health covered when a tooth problem became an emergency. But since voters moved to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state, Missouri has added limited dental coverage for adults and shored up reimbursement rates paid to dentists, putting them more in line with rates paid by private insurers…