MICHAEL MARTZ
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dr. Cynthia Southern expects the phone to ring often in her Pulaski County dental office beginning next Thursday, when Virginia expands its Medicaid program to provide a comprehensive dental benefit to poor adults.
More than 750,000 Virginians will become eligible for a benefit that the state believes will transform their health, help them land jobs and make eating a pleasure again.
âA lot of people in our area are going to use that benefit,â said Southern, whose practice in the town of Pulaski serves not only the county, but also surrounding jurisdictions in the mountains of rural Southwest Virginia. âI think itâs a pretty big problem.â
By George Barker and Myechia Minter-Jordan
Itâs 2020 and, believe it or not, we have some good news.
For too long, Virginia had been one of the 14 states that chose not to include coverage of preventive dental care for adults enrolled in the state Medicaid plan, opting to cover only emergency dental services. This generally meant that the only dental services Medicaid paid for were emergency tooth extractions, causing many individuals to live with an uncomfortable or unhealthy mouth â until now.
Thatâs because this past month, the General Assembly acted to provide preventive dental benefits to adults who rely on Medicaid for their health insurance coverage.