Florida sued over children’s lack of dental care
A lawsuit has been filed against the state of Florida after more than 750,000 children on Medicaid did not receive dental care.
The action claims that Florida violated Medicaid obligations by failing to provide adequate medical care to more than one million kids.
It also claims that around 390,000 schoolchildren didn’t receive a medical check-up in 2007.
The problem has reportedly been caused by Florida failing to reimburse dentists and doctors adequately for Medicaid treatments.
In Tennessee Medicaid would pay a dentist $25 for a basic oral examination but in Florida a dentist would get $15.
Stuart Singer, the attorney that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Florida Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the Florida Pediatric Society, and every resident under 21, said that there are many counties where only one or two dentists accept Medicaid patients.
He added that even these dentists were limiting the number of Medicaid patients that that would serve.
Less than nine per cent on Florida dentists currently accept Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates.
Seeing specialist doctors can be even tougher for children relying on Medicaid.
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