Administrative burden and the association with dentists' participation in two Iowa Medicaid managed care organizations

Access to dental services for Medicaid patients primarily depends on dentists participation in state Medicaid programs. However, many private practice dentists restrict how many new Medicaid patients they accept, often because of issues like complicated paperwork, delayed payments, and denied reimbursements. While these administrative barriers have been reported, few studies have specifically looked at how these burdens relate to dentists acceptance of new Medicaid patients across different managed care organizations (MCOs) within one state.

This study evaluated how Iowa general dentists perceptions of administrative burden, their characteristics, and practice attributes were related to their acceptance of new Medicaid patients in MCO 1 and MCO 2, using data from the 2021 Survey of Iowa Private Practice Dentists. Descriptive, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses were performed for each MCO.

The results showed important differences between the two MCOs. Dentists who considered administrative burden a major problem were less likely to accept new Medicaid patients from MCO 2, but this relationship was not seen for MCO 1. When considering practice structures, providers in partnerships were less likely than solo providers to accept new Medicaid patients. Overall, these findings suggest that reducing administrative demands within Medicaid MCOs, especially for partnered practices, could possibly increase dentist participation and improve patient access to oral health services.