Race and payor type for child visits with public health dental hygienist practitioners

Abstract

Purpose: To examine whether growth in visits to public health dental hygiene practitioners (PHDHPs) providing preventative dental services at a pediatric hospital clinic was predominantly among children receiving public insurance and children of minority background from 2013 to 2017. Methods: Longitudinal descriptive data analysis from electronic health records for 6856 children under age 18 years who visited PHDHPs co-located at a hospital clinic in Pittsburgh, PA, from 2013 to 2017. We compared visits between white versus non-white children and between children with public, private, and no or missing insurance by year. Results: Visit volume doubled from 2013 (n = 811) to 2017 (n = 1868). The proportion of PHDHP visits with non-white children increased from 77% (n = 625) in 2013 to 87% (n = 1472) in 2017 (p < 0.001). The proportion of PHDHP visits with children with public insurance increased from 72% (n = 585) in 2013 to 82% (n = 1377) in 2017 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: PHDHPs co-located at a pediatric hospital clinic saw a high proportion of visits from children of non-white race and with public insurance. Visits from children of minority race and with public insurance increased disproportionately as visit volume grew from 2013 to 2017, depicting a vehicle through which historically underserved children increasingly accessed preventive dental services.

A comparative analysis of outcomes of root canal therapy for pediatric medicaid beneficiaries from New York State

“…There are relatively few studies of the provision of common dental procedures in pediatric populations by payer type, and they are largely focused on preventive dental procedures ( 10 – 16 ). A few such studies reported on differences in the average number of therapeutic dental procedures, including endodontic procedures received by children in Wisconsin ( 11 – 13 ), finding: (1) amongst children enrolled in a private dental insurance plan, children residing in rural and dental health provider shortage areas (DHPSAs) received higher numbers of endodontic procedures than those residing in urban and non-DHPSA areas ( 11 , 13 ), and African American and Hispanic children received significantly more endodontic procedures than white children ( 12 ); (2) Child Medicaid beneficiaries received endodontic procedures at almost twice the rate of children enrolled in a private dental insurance plan and provision of endodontic procedures did not differ by DHPSA ( 13 ).…”