Kansas lawmakers invest $10 million to Medicaid Dental Program

TOPEKA (KSNT) — Kansas lawmakers are spending $10 million to help improve Medicaid dental rates, meaning more Kansans will have access to quality dental care.

The Kansas Medicaid Dental Program gives benefits to adults seeking dental treatments such as cleanings, dentures, and more. However, only 30% of Kansas dentists offer Medicaid benefits.

This is due to low reimbursement rates, which are funds that the state gives back to dentists for providing Medicaid services. These rates had not seen a significant boost in about 25 years.

Now those rates are going up, for some services by 50%. The goal is to intrigue more dentists to offer Medicaid benefits so that more Kansans can access quality care.

We spoke with Tanya Dorf Brunner, the Director for Oral Health Kansas. She believes that while the rate increases are good, there is more work to be done.

"Being able to get those rates up a little bit is going to help get more dental providers interested in providing more care for their neighbors. We are really happy with this rate increase, but it is definitely not enough. It's going to take probably another 30 million dollars quite honestly to get the rates to where we need them to be."

The new rates took effect on July 1st of this year.

For more Capitol Bureau news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.