Wisconsin Medicaid enrollees' recurrent use of emergency departments and physicians' offices for treatment of nontraumatic dental conditions. J Am Dent Assoc 2011 May;142(5):540-50
Date
05/03/2011Pubmed ID
21531936DOI
10.14219/jada.archive.2011.0224Scopus ID
2-s2.0-79958154699 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 29 CitationsAbstract
BACKGROUND: Medicaid enrollees experience a number of barriers that prevent them from seeking care in dental offices, leading some to repeatedly seek treatment for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs) in emergency departments (EDs) and physicians' offices (POs). The authors examined the rate of return visits to EDs and POs for treatment of NTDCs among Wisconsin Medicaid enrollees and sought to characterize frequent and typical users of such care in this population.
METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of all Wisconsin Medicaid dental claims for NTDCs to EDs and POs from 2001 through 2003. They used finite mixture models, allowing for covariate dependence, to model separate rates of return for NTDC-related visits corresponding to typical and frequent users of EDs and POs.
RESULTS: Overall, 23,999 enrollees had made NTDC-related visits to EDs and POs, with 6.5 percent estimated to be frequent users of such care. Typical and frequent users had a mean (± standard error) rate of return visits of 0.2 ± 0.01 and 4.0 ± 0.08 per year, respectively. Male enrollees and people aged 19 to 42 years were more likely to be frequent users, with African American and Hispanic enrollees having lower odds of being frequent users than did white enrollees. The effect of living in an area with a shortage of dental health care professionals did not affect the likelihood of being a frequent user of EDs and POs for such care.
CONCLUSIONS: Male and middle-aged enrollees were significantly more likely to be frequent users of EDs and POs for treatment of NTDCs. Compared with white enrollees, African American and Hispanic enrollees were less likely to be frequent users and had lower rates of recurrent visits for NTDCs among typical users.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Improved access to dental care for Medicaid enrollees that is best managed by dental care providers should reduce the rates of recurrent NTDC-related visits to EDs and POs.
Author List
Okunseri C, Pajewski NM, Jackson S, Szabo AAuthors
Christopher Okunseri DDS,MS Associate Professor and Director in the Clinical Services department at Marquette UniversityAniko Szabo PhD Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Age Factors
Child
Dental Care
Dentists
Emergency Service, Hospital
Female
Humans
Male
Medicaid
Medically Underserved Area
Middle Aged
Mouth Diseases
Periodontal Diseases
Physicians' Offices
Poverty
Retrospective Studies
Rural Health
Sex Factors
Tooth Diseases
United States
Urban Health
Wisconsin
Young Adult
