Limits
When this program started, there were limits set on each line item. For example: the limit for any one person during the funding year for dental work was only $500.
Over the years as more money was allocated to Arkansas, those limits were raised. According to our current “handbook” the following is true:
Dental Services $2,500
Lab $1,000
Physician’s Services $320
Mental Health Services $400
Substance Abuse $400
Client Transportation $400
Vision Care $265 (This line item disappeared in 2007)
As far as the drug program component was concerned, there was a limit as to how many HIV drugs Arkansas would provide. There was also a proviso that stated that to be eligible for the drug program a person’s CD4 could not exceed 250. a viral load must exceed 35,000, or a person had to have a prior AIDS diagnosis (there were a couple more rules, but they are not important here).
It now appears that anything goes. Since dental is being paid for by the state, all a dentist has to do to exceed the above limit is send proof of necessity for the treatment plan to the Health Department and they will approve it. It doesn’t matter what is being done, it seems that they will approve just about anything!
This happened several years ago and the person calling the shots at that time wound up leaving the Department of Health in tears. I think that the circumstances surrounding that “exceptions-to- the-limits” incident had to do with parity of services across the state. At the time exceptions were being made in other districts at an alarming rate which provided care to some and no care to others, depending on where they lived in the state.
The upshot of all of this is: Get it while you can. The money will not last forever. If you need dental, give me a call. Just remember that there are not a lot of dentists in Arkansas to provide these services (in District II there are only 4).