Plans to restore dental benefits delayed

Physicians and dentists groups expressed outrage at the effect on the poor.

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Strickland administration has delayed plans to restore dental benefits for 700,000 low-income Ohioans and to boost Medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors who care for the poor.

Higher than expected caseloads in the program, which provides state and federal dollars to insure the poor, make it impossible to afford the $65 million a year that expanded benefits would have cost, Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Gov. Ted Strickland, said Monday.

“The governor is committed to moving forward in a fiscally responsible way,” Dailey said. He noted that the administration will get new numbers in mid-December that may change the outlook.

Representatives of the physicians and dentist associations were outraged, expressing fears that providers would begin dropping out of Medicaid as a result, leaving poor Ohioans without needed services.

The decision came less than a day before a hearing scheduled Tuesday to consider the expansion, which would have reversed cuts the state made in 2005.

The two-year state operating budget that went into effect July 1 called for restoring dental benefits, which had been cut by lawmakers in 2005, beginning Jan. 1. It also called for a 3.2 percent increase in Medicaid rates to hospitals and a 3 percent increase for doctors and other non-hospital providers.

“It’s becoming harder and harder for physicians to stay in the Medicaid program when the reimbursements don’t keep pace with practice expense and inflation,” said Tim Maglione, spokesman for the 20,000-member Ohio State Medical Association.

He said doctors who serve Medicaid recipients haven’t had a rate increase in seven years.

The medical association also said Strickland had made them a promise.

“The trust between Ohio’s physicians and state government has been violated,” president Craig W. Anderson said in a statement.

David J. Owsiany, executive director of the Ohio Dental Association, said his group worked with Strickland on the issue both during his candidacy and throughout his first year in office and had assurances the two items would be covered.

He said people without dental insurance will wind up going to the emergency room for treatment, which will ultimately cost the state more.

“They’re people of good will making difficult decisions,” he said. “But this is penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

The dental association issued a release expressing “extreme disappointment” over the sudden change in plans.

“While hospitals recognize the fiscal concerns of the state, hospitals also face financial pressures on a variety of fronts including inflation, increased labor and energy costs and higher prices for prescription drugs,” it said.

As a concession to hospitals, the administration agreed Tuesday to postpone a separate recalibration of Medicaid rates that had been scheduled to begin in January, putting off the adjustment until April, Dailey said. The Ohio Hospital Association had argued that the adjustment would cost Ohio hospitals $13 million on top of the losses they will experience from the delayed rate increases.

“The administration felt it a legitimate point that they were making,” Dailey said.