Dental program for children set to resume following KanCare glitch

By PHIL CAUTHON
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — A program that provided oral health care to kids in Head Start before being effectively terminated by KanCare is nearly set to resume, officials say.

Working as part of the Kansas Cavity-Free Kids program, dentist Joe Ferguson performs an on-site exam of a child's teeth at Clay Center Head Start in 2008. Photo by KHI. — Working as part of the Kansas Cavity-Free Kids program, dentist Joe Ferguson performs an on-site exam of a child’s teeth at Clay Center Head Start in 2008. Photo by KHI.

Before the launch of KanCare, Kansas Cavity Free Kids had for five years helped more than 7,000 children in 41 rural counties get regular cleanings, fluoride varnishes and sealants from dental hygienists in Head Start classrooms.

But the program was effectively shut down when day-to-day management of the state’s Medicaid program was turned over to three for-profit managed care companies on Jan. 1, 2013.

UnitedHealthcare, one of the three KanCare contractors, chose to not authorize payment for teeth cleanings performed at Head Start, a decision that effectively put the entire program on ice.

Timothy Spilker — president of United’s Kansas health plan — told KHI News Service that the company has been working for the last three months to resolve the problem and that work is nearly complete.

“We’ve revised all of our payment policies and the codes will be consistent with what was covered prior to KanCare,” Spilker said. “All of that should be effective here in the next week or two — mid-March at the absolute latest.”

Kathy Hunt, the Head Start official who coordinated Kansas Cavity Free Kids, said that it would then take some time to get the program back on its feet.

“Once the fix is in place, we’ll talk to the Head Start programs that were involved and they can work on rebuilding the system that they weren’t able to continue,” Hunt said. “It will take time. It’s been a year and the folks they had in place, of course, moved on to other things.”

Even so, Hunt said the glitch in the program may prove to be a good thing in the long run.

“Not only are they putting in this fix, but they want to work with the Head Start Association in other avenues, too, like helping promote oral health for pregnant women and finding other ways that we can help each other out,” Hunt said. “In the long run, I think this might have been good. It may be the start of a partnership that might not have come about otherwise.”