Rural America has too few dentists and too few patients who can pay them - Entrepreneur Generations

According to the National Rural Health Association, about 43 percent of rural Americans don't have access to dental care. Some public efforts are trying to lure more dentists and other oral-health care providers to underserved areas, but there's another problem: people can't go to the dentist if they can't afford to, according to Richard Meckstroth, chair of the department of dental practice and rural health at West Virginia University.

"And affordability cuts both ways," Anne Kim reports for The Washington Post. "Recruiting more providers into shortage areas can compound the problem, said Meckstroth, putting local dentists into tougher financial straits by increasing competition for a relatively small pool of paying patients. The dentists who arrive under loan forgiveness programs also tend to leave after their two-year obligation is up, what Meckstroth calls a “revolving door” that deprives patients of continuity of care."

The problem is particularly acute in West Virginia, where all but six of its 55 counties are either federally designated as "Health Professional Shortage Areas" or "Medically Underserved Areas" or both. Nearly half of its counties had fewer than six dentists in 2014 and 2015, and only half of adults in West Virginia had seen a dentist in the previous year. More than 20 percent hadn't seen a dentist in five years, Kim reports.

Lynnel Beauchesne, a dentist in Tunnelton, W.Va. (pop. 336), illustrates what Meckstroth is talking about: She has as many as 8,000 patients, but her patients are so poor that she keeps prices at barely above cost. Because of that, her practice only brings in just enough to stay afloat.

"Patients’ inability to afford care is one reason younger dentists — many facing up to $250,000 in school debt — are reluctant to settle in rural areas and why dentists like Beauchesne find themselves working hard to keep their doors open," Kim reports. "Providing dental benefits under Medicare — at least for preventive services such as an annual cleaning — would both benefit seniors and help dentists in rural areas survive. Also helpful to patients and providers would be expanding Medicaid coverage of preventive care to adults instead of ending it at age 21. Covering preventive care would also reduce the amount spent on emergency room dental visits, which the American Dental Association estimates cost the U.S. health system $1.6 billion in 2012."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2LxloJ7 Rural America has too few dentists and too few patients who can pay them - Entrepreneur Generations

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