Access to dental care is the most common unmet healthcare need in Ohio’s children. A 2015 Ohio Medicaid survey found that this issue was then pushed into second place only by prescription drug usage for those in adulthood. Although income does appear to affect the frequency of visits to a dental facility, community healthcare centers do exist in the local Akron area to provide affordable and quality dental care to residents.
The AxessPointe dental center based in Arlington Plaza is one of five local facilities that have helped revolutionize dental health care in the Akron area, with treatment for oral health at a low cost. The facilities also target pediatric patients covered by Medicaid, in a move which helps to increase the percentage of patients covered by insurance who are able to visit the center.
Focusing on providing basic dental care to reduce pain and discomfort for local residents, the dental centers focus on preventive care, cleaning, tooth filling, extractions, fluoride treatments and other services.
The AxessPointe nonprofit organization, with many locations in Northeast Ohio, reaches out to a greater percentage of residents covered by Medicaid. They seek to provide oral health to the community for a long time as well as help families who struggle with healthcare costs.
Revenue system
The dental facilities are also able to collect more revenue by ditching the traditional paper billing system. They have adopted a computerized management system to keep track of patients’ billing in order to ensure that no losses are made.
They also scale their prices higher in order to ensure that they provide excellent services even for patients who aren’t insured. Patients who aren’t covered by insurance will pay around $40 per visit. This will prevent any recurrence of the mistakes from the past, where insured patients received no bill, along with the resulting loss of revenue.
All the strategies employed by the facility’s management team aim at increasing revenue while improving services.
Demands for dental health care
A majority of residents in the community do not have dental insurance, leaving residents here with untreated dental problems.
To resolve this problem, AxessPointe has increased the coverage of Medicaid-insured residents in this community. It has done so by targeting to increase pediatric patients covered by Medicaid to over 70 percent. The importance of individuals maintaining their dental health is as vital as general body wellness.
These facilities have revived hope among stakeholders and residents regarding the accessibility of affordable and improved dental health care. It’s also ensured that any problems that residents are likely to encounter in future are properly addressed, regardless of their financial position.
