Oral Health Engagement
Human-Centered Design (HCD) is the process CMS uses to understand the experiences of people who interact with our programs and services. Instead of making decisions based only on what we think people need, we directly involve clinicians, patients, third-party vendors, federal partners, and CMS employees to collaboratively understand the context of their work and engagement with CMS. Through this collaborative approach, CMS gathers insights that directly shape our policies and programs. This ensures CMS services aren’t just technically correct but genuinely helpful in people’s everyday lives.
In the spring of 2022, CMS conducted the Oral Health Human-Centered Design Customer Engagement to understand barriers to oral healthcare access for Medicaid or dual (Medicare-Medicaid) eligible children and adults. CMS engaged directly with a broad range of external customers, including people with Medicaid, oral health providers, state representatives, and advocates, through interviews and onsite visits to capture their lived experience. As a product of our research, we co-created the “Barriers to Oral Health” illustration with our external customers.
The Oral Health Customer Engagement supports CMS’ Oral Health Cross-Cutting initiative, a priority for CMS.
Barriers to Oral Healthcare Illustration
CMS and external customers co-created "Barriers to Oral Healthcare Illustration" to represent their perspective and highlight the most prominent obstacles individuals’ face as they seek to access or provide oral healthcare.
Page Last Modified:
07/31/2025 08:18 AM