University Of Iowa’s Dental College No Longer Accepting New Medicaid Members

IOWA CITY — Citing changes that will lead the state’s health care program to “a crisis situation,” the University of Iowa College of Dentistry announced Thursday it will no longer accept new adult Medicaid members for dental services.University officials said the college will continue to serve its more than 8,000 current adult patients, but will not be accepting new adult patients covered by Iowa’s Dental Wellness Plan as of July 1.“The management of the Dental Wellness Plan program has become so complicated that we no longer have the ability or resources to effectively oversee additional Dental Wellness Plan patients,” said Michael Kanellis, the college’s associate dean for patient care, in an email to Iowa Medicaid Enterprises.The Dental Wellness Plan, available for Medicaid members aged 19 and older, covers most of the 600,000 poor or disabled Iowans on Medicaid.The College of Dentistry — the state’s only dental college — saw 10,441 Dental Wellness Plan patients in the past fiscal year, for a total of 34,719 appointments.The move “will undoubtedly have a significant impact” on Iowans and puts “the entire program closer to a state of crisis,” said Laurie Traetow, executive director of the Iowa Dental Association.In a letter to Iowa Medicaid Enterprise Dental Director Heather Miller Wednesday, the college’s Kanellis cited concerns that recent changes to the dental program “will have significant educational, operational and financial impacts on the college.”“The state of Iowa used to have the best adult dental Medicaid program in the country, with the highest levels of dentist participation,” Kanellis said in his letter.