Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2022
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Frontiers in Oral Health
DOI of Original Publication
https://doi.org/10.3389/froh.2022.989659
Date of Submission
March 2024
Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the changes in dental insurance and utilization among pregnant women before and after the pregnancy Medicaid dental benefit policy implementation in 2015 in Virginia.
Methods: We used pooled cross-sectional data from six cycles of the Virginia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System on women aged ≥21 years. Using logistic regression models and a difference-in-difference design, we compared the effects of policy implementation on dental insurance and utilization between pre-policy (2013-2014) and post-policy period (2016-2019) among women enrolled in Medicaid (treatment, N = 1,105) vs. those with private insurance (control, N = 2,575). A p-value of 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Among Medicaid-enrolled women, the report of dental insurance (71.6%) and utilization (37.7%) was higher in the post-period compared to their pre-period (44.4% and 30.3%, respectively) estimates but still remained lower than the post-period estimates among women with private insurance (88.0% and 59.9%, respectively). Adjusted analyses found that Medicaid-enrolled women had a significantly greater change in the probability of reporting dental insurance in all post-period years than women with private insurance, while the change in the probability of utilization only became statistically significant in 2019. In 2019, there was a 16 percentage point increase (95% CI = 0.05, 0.28) in the report of dental insurance and a 17 percentage point increase (95% CI = 0.01-0.33) in utilization in treatment group compared to controls.
Conclusions: The 2015 pregnancy Medicaid dental benefit increased dental insurance and dental care utilization among Medicaid-enrolled women and reduced associated disparities between Medicaid and privately insured groups.
Rights
© 2022 Naavaal and Harless. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Is Part Of
VCU Oral Health Promotion and Community Outreach Publication
Comments
Originally published as a Brief Research Report on 20 September 2022 in Frontiers in Oral Health, https://doi.org/10.3389/froh.2022.989659