Effort to Expose MassHealth Dental System and Improve Care for Poor

This courtroom drama unfolds in federal court without much fanfare or publicity. The result of the decision effects people and dental offices throughout the commonwealth.

The defendants are Mitt Romney and members of his administration by name in their official capacity. The plaintiffs are hundreds of thousands of citizens including about a half million children enrolled in MassHealth.

The claim is that MassHealth does not provide federally mandated adequate dental care. The result is that since March 2002, MassHealth only covers most adults for emergency dental care and children who retain full dental coverage, are often unable to find dentists who will provide care.

Who are the plaintiffs? Recipients of MassHealth are people with disabilities, low-income families, pregnant women, and Social Security recipients. People who receive MassHealth cannot afford to pay for other health insurance or to pay out of pocket for dental treatment. MassHealth or Medicaid is an important part of America's welfare safety net.

The problem is wide-ranging and serious. Dr. Rob Compton, chief dental officer of Delta Dental of Massachusetts, testified on Oct. 20, 2004, the third day of testimony. Compton quoted a 1999 special legislative commission report that found that only 33 percent of children covered by MassHealth received dental care.

A survey, performed by the Office of Oral Health of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health last year, in elementary schools around the commonwealth, including Malden, found that 41 percent of children with MassHealth coverage had untreated tooth decay. Untreated decay leads to the very high utilization of dental emergency services at ten times the rate of children covered by Delta Dental insurance.

Those numbers translate into a large number of children going to bed in pain every night. Those numbers represent parents who are unable to find someone to help their child. Those children are a large segment of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.