Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
There has been much debate about whether we should increase the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in medical care. Proponents argue that doing so may reduce cost and increase access, while critics would say that quality may decrease. An analogous issue in the dental space is use of dental hygienists as compared to…
Clearly the answer is yes. For many basic tasks, dentists and dental hygenists may perform task of similar quality. However, in some states, dental hygenists are not allowed to perform these tasks. A paper by Wing and Marier find the following: United States, occupational regulations influence the work tasks that may legally be performed by…
Frontline has done extensive reporting on the problems of dental care in America. In particular, they cite the lack of quality that both children and adults receive at various corporate dental firms (e.g., KoolSmiles, Aspen Dental). The problem should not be placed solely on these corporate firms, however. Reimbursement rates for dentists are low to…
In the UK, a dental clinic has opened in a Sainsbury’s grocery store. The grocery store dental clinics aim to fill a patient need caused by the shortage of dentists in the UK. BBC News reports, “Dentist Lance Knight said the practice aimed at “making dental healthcare more accessible and convenient to better meet…
According to a report by the The Colorado Health Institute, 68 percent of rural and 74 percent of urban dentists do not accept Medicaid patients. Even for those dentists who do accept Medicaid, many are not accepting new Medicaid patients. The full report is available here.