Georgia Oral Health Initiative 2002: A Partnership for Improving Oral Health Access and Outcomes for Children

摘要

Over the past four years, Georgia has begun to overcome the barriers to access for childrens oral health services through the Georgia Oral health prevention Program (GOHPP). However, despite inclusion of the full range of dental services in PeachCare for Kids (Georgias Children Health Insurance Program), increased Medicaid/ PeachCare reimbursement, simplification of reimbursement paperwork, and expanded public health preventive oral health services, inadequate oral health care for children remains a significant problem. Issues being addressed by the Georgia Oral Health Initiative 2002 include: Provision of oral health preventative and treatment services to the uninsured and no reimbursement patients with moderate incomes (GOHPP)$ Development and implementation of surveillance and evaluation systems that will measure changes in oral health status indicators and access (Oral Health Process Evaluation, 2002)$ Improvement in delivering community health education on oral health issues$ Increasing the supply of dental manpower and its distribution, if necessary$ and Institutionalizing current partnerships and existing strategies for the future.