Advocates urge sharp Medicaid dental rate increases to expand care for people with disabilities

Chairman Carpenter and members of the Committee on Social Services Budget heard extensive oral testimony from patients, providers and advocacy groups urging the committee to increase Medicaid dental reimbursement and remove administrative barriers that keep dentists from treating Medicaid enrollees, particularly adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Advocates said the shortage of Medicaid-participating dentists forces families to travel long distances for care or delay treatment. "Why should they have to travel hours away for dental care?" said Tammy Veeson, who testified as guardian and caregiver for her brother, who has cerebral palsy. "We need change and we need it now."

The ask to the committee combined several elements: a $16.9 million SGF increase to raise dental rates to a level advocates say would match Missouri’s recent investments and substantially grow provider participation; a $1.3 million SGF increase to raise the hospital operating-room reimbursement code (referred to as the G0330 code in testimony) so hospitals will be more likely to open ORs for dental cases requiring anesthesia; and additional funding to expand the Donated Dental Services program that pays a coordinator and lab fees for volunteer dentists (testimony requested a $55,000 SGF increase above the current $70,000 appropriation). Mary Anne Lynch Small, the Medicaid projects manager at Oral Health Kansas, said only about 30 percent of Kansas dentists accept Medicaid and 41 counties have no Medicaid dental providers at all.

Oral Health Kansas and others presented Missouri as a model: Tanya Dorf Brunner, executive director of Oral Health Kansas, said Missouri combined rate increases with a Medicaid-facilitator program that provides practice-level technical assistance; two years after that combined approach Missouri saw a growth of roughly 450 dental providers enrolling to serve Medicaid and a drop in counties without a provider from 36 to 17.

Dental providers described how rates and administrative hurdles interact. Kevin Robertson, executive director of the Kansas Dental Association, told the committee the association requests $16.9 million SGF to align rates with Missouri and an additional $1.3 million SGF specifically for the anesthesia-related reimbursement code used when hospitals provide OR time for dental procedures. Janelle Shoemaker, representing Adventure Dental and Vision, emphasized rising practice costs and that 80 percent of dentists cite low Medicaid fees as the top barrier to accepting pediatric Medicaid patients.

Speakers emphasized special-needs patients who require sedation or hospital-based care. Ryan Morgan of Special Anesthesia Services and Sarah Peltzman (testifying for Advanced Specialty Anesthesia) said mobile anesthesia and office-based anesthesia services save public money by avoiding higher facility fees, but current Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement often does not cover the costs of providing those services in community settings. Proposals discussed include technical fixes to coding and aligning payments for mobile anesthesia with hospital/ASC-equivalent rates.

The committee was also asked to adopt the interim Special Committee on Sedation Dentistry’s recommendations, which called for a rate increase and a higher hospital OR rate for dental procedures requiring sedation. Advocates framed the proposed investments as preventive and potentially cost-saving: Jamie Gideon of the Alzheimer’s Association said reimbursements for cognitive assessment and care planning (CPT code referenced in testimony) and better dental access can reduce hospitalizations and downstream Medicaid costs.

Context and next steps: Testimony repeatedly asked the committee to include the requested SGF increases in KDHE’s budget so the state could draw matching federal funds. Advocates noted the governor’s FY26 budget included resources for dental program changes and urged the legislature to pair rate increases with outreach and administrative assistance to translate dollars into more available providers.

Votes/decisions: No formal committee votes were recorded in the oral testimony. Testimony and written submissions will be used in the committee’s budget deliberations.

Ending: Committee members asked clarifying questions but did not take formal action during the hearing. The dental requests — rate increases, hospital anesthesia code increases, and investment in a Medicaid facilitator program — were the largest consolidated funding asks presented to the Social Services Budget committee during the session.