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Senate committee advances bill to raise Medicaid dental rates after dentists warn of access losses
Summary
Lawmakers heard hours of testimony from pediatric and oral surgeons urging a phased increase to Arkansas Medicaid dental reimbursement, citing 18 years without a rate adjustment and risk that providers will stop seeing Medicaid patients.
Senators advanced Senate Bill 347 after extended testimony from dentists and state officials about falling Medicaid dental participation and mounting access problems.
The bill would increase Medicaid dental reimbursement in a phased approach tied to published fee reports and raise the annual cap for special‑needs adults’ dental benefits. Sponsors and providers said the current schedule has not been updated in roughly 18 years and that many dentists are reducing or stopping Medicaid participation.
Supporters told the committee that low reimbursement and rising overhead make serving Medicaid patients financially unsustainable. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Aaron Baldwin said Medicaid reimbursements for common procedures can be as low as 32–44 percent of billed fees while office overhead runs about 65 percent, meaning practices are subsidizing care. Pediatric dentist Jason Havard testified that about half of Arkansas children rely on Medicaid for dental care and that untreated tooth disease drives emergency room visits and missed school days.
Committee members questioned the basis for the proposed rates and the fiscal impact. Witnesses identified the source for the target rates as a third‑party National Dental Advisory fee report (a market fee survey that includes claims and provider surveys), and DHS staff said their own rate review—comparing surrounding states and Medicare—was near publication. DHS told senators their rate review showed Arkansas ranks low on many commonly billed codes and that a public posting was due imminently.
DHS staff and the bill’s sponsors discussed an adult special‑needs cap that the bill would raise from $500 to higher levels over three years. DHS said the cap increase would likely increase, not decrease, utilization and factored the cap into its fiscal estimate. Committee fiscal staff provided a range for potential state costs depending on the number of adults enrolled and codes included.
After questions about methodology and fiscal effects, the committee voted to pass the bill. The motion carried with the voice vote recorded as “ayes have it.”
Supporters said the increase is intended to preserve provider participation and avoid future closures of Medicaid dental access in rural areas; critics on other occasions have urged caution until DHS’s final rate review is published.
The bill will return to the full Senate for further consideration.
