ADA leaders: Continue covering preventive services, fluoride
Open letter written to insurance groups
A national conversation surrounding the efficacy of fluoride and community water fluoridation prompted ADA leaders to re-emphasize the need for insurance groups to cover preventive services for patients.
ADA leaders penned an open letter to third-party payers, Medicaid agencies and employer groups May 19 encouraging them to cover preventive services, including fluoride.
The letter was prompted by the ADA Council on Dental Benefit Programs, whose members felt it was imperative to reinforce the ADA’s policy on preventive services, given the national conversation and actions surrounding community water fluoridation and fluoride.
“We wanted to re-emphasize the need to cover preventive services throughout a patient’s lifetime given many benefit plans limit certain preventive services to children. But how “children” is defined vastly differs between plans,” said Mark A. Moats, D.M.D. chair of the Council on Dental Benefit Programs. “Preventive services are often the most affordable and accessible to the entire population. Evidence-based coverage and a more inclusive scope of preventive services can positively impact oral health for patients of all ages.”
ADA President Brett Kessler, D.D.S., and President-elect Richard Rosato, D.M.D., agreed so they coordinated with the chairs of CDBP, the Council on Scientific Affairs and Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention, to write the letter.
“The state bans on water fluoridation and the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to pull prescription fluoride supplements from the market has put millions of patients’ oral health in jeopardy. It’s important that we as health care providers advocate on behalf of this scientifically proven method to prevent tooth decay,” Dr. Kessler said. “I encourage members to share this letter with their plan provider representatives and with the members’ patients who can contact their companies’ human resources staff about the benefits the American Dental Association believes every dental plan should cover.”
