EXPERTS TO TESTIFY AT PUBLIC HEALTH COMMITTEE HEARING
Foundation President and UCONN Professor to Review Research Findings
NEW BRITAIN - 3/12/2006- Based on the research findings of two oral health policy briefs released in late January, Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) President & CEO Patricia Baker has been invited to testify at Monday's Public Health Committee hearing.
The first policy brief entitled, "HUSKY A Dental Care: New Directions," reviews barriers to dental care for low-income children including a diminishing oral health workforce, low reimbursement fees, and a limited dental safety net system. The second policy brief, "HUSKY A Dental Care: Financial Strategies," provides a cost estimate of increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for oral health services to the 70th percentile of normal and customary fees.
Baker will provide a snap shot of the increasing demand for oral health services among children insured under the HUSKY program during the hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. in Room 2D of the Legislative Office Building.
"While oral health is often overlooked and ignored, it is an area of concern for many parents and public health professionals across Connecticut," said Baker. "Scientific research indicates that dental decay is five times more common than asthma among children and that dental pain causes children to miss school at a rate of 3 absences per 100 children."
Policy brief co-author Joanna Douglass, who is a Pediatric Dentist and an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, will explain the methodology used to develop the increased fee cost estimate.
Both oral health briefs and the hearing testimony of both Douglass and Baker are on the Foundation's website at www.cthealth.org:
The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state's largest independent, non-profit grantmaking foundation dedicated to improving the health of the people of Connecticut through systemic change, program innovation and health policy analysis. Since it was established in July of 1999, CT Health has awarded 269 grants in 37 cities and towns totaling close to $21 million in three priority areas – children's mental health, racial and ethnic health disparities, and oral health.
