May 14, 2008
Let’s talk about dentists. There seems to be an unlimited number of dentists across the State of Arkansas. Unfortunately for my folks with HIV, there are only ten of them that we can access with our current program. My dental database has 45 names in it. These are dentists that I have used in the past. My database covered all the counties in the western half of the state (39 counties). Now there are only three that have signed a contract with the Department of Health in my area. Three????
Amazing that only ten dentists agreed to participate statewide. I feel sure that it wasn’t a problem dealing with people with HIV, we had many, many dentists that had already been a great help to us. I think that it was the contract that they were asked to sign.
The State offered dentists a flat fee for each procedure. They wanted the dentists to accept that fee as full payment and to agree to NOT bill the patient for any overage. I can’t imagine why that didn’t work.
This has now left me with no family dentist in the Fort Smith area, no family dentist in the Hot Springs area, no family dentist in the Texarkana area, no family dentist in the El Dorado area, no oral surgeon in the Fayetteville area, and I lost my main dentist in the Little Rock area,
What’s sad is that no one seems to be really concerned about this. If I complain to the Health Department about finding a dentist for someone who lives in an out-lying area, I will be told to send them to some other dentist that HAS signed the agreement; no matter that it could be a 2 or 3 hour drive!
Once again the Health Department becomes a barrier to care.
What’s really sad is that the program office thinks that they are doing a really good job. The following quote from another disaster springs to my mind: “Heck of a job, Brownie.”