| The problem costing us billions of dollars
Every year, thousands of Americans end up in emergency rooms for issues that could have been treated — and often prevented — in a dentist's office. The consequences of untreated oral disease ripple across the healthcare system, driving up costs to the tune of billions of dollars per year, while also pushing patients into crowded emergency departments that aren't equipped to fix the problem. For years, the medical field and dentistry have operated in parallel universes — with separate records, benefits and priorities. But experts say these needs to change. Data siloes
The lack of data connectivity between the dental and medical worlds makes for fragmented patient records, limits care coordination and makes it harder for providers to understand the whole picture of a patient's health. Health plans can help improve coordination and integration because they have access to claims data showing whether patients receive dental services, noted Luis Padilla, chief health officer at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). Plans can use this data to identify important care gaps. For instance, if a diabetic patient hasn't seen a dentist for a while, a health plan might reach out and encourage them to schedule a visit, Padilla stated.
Soundbite
"I think once they understand how dental benefits are helping them maintain the overall health status of their membership, they'll start paying more attention. Right now for [payers], dental benefits are a market competitor benefit. They have to offer it because others are offering. They're not offering because it's keeping their members healthy," said Puneet Budhiraja, managing director of HumbiAI by Innovaccer, which is working with the nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health to integrate medical and dental data. Reducing overall healthcare spending
CareQuest has been tracking the extent to which oral health problems are exacerbating the nation's rising levels of healthcare spending, and a recent report illustrated just how costly untreated dental issues can become when preventive care is out of reach. It found that Americans made roughly 1.6 million emergency department visits for non-traumatic dental conditions in 2022, costing the healthcare system about $3.9 billion — far more than treating the same problems in a dental office. And many of these visits result only in temporary relief, such as antibiotics or pain medication, rather than treatment of the underlying dental issue.
— By Katie Adams
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