Health Care Innovation Awards Round Two: Altarum Institute Project Profile

Project Title: "Reducing the Burden of Childhood Dental Disease"
Geographic Reach: Michigan
Estimated Funding Amount: $9,383,762

Summary:

The Altarum Institute project will test a service delivery model with multiple components that involves direct work with primary care providers and dentists and the development and enhancement of supporting health information technology components. The model targets children enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, ages 0 to 17.  Specific intervention activities include: 1) improving Identification of Children at high risk of dental disease by developing and deploying oral health risk screening tools, leveraging an existing statewide registry to document screenings and risk status, and delivering technical assistance/training to providers on the use of these tools in primary care and non-traditional settings; 2) linking to appropriate care providers through existing state and regional health information exchange infrastructure to establish electronic referral pathways between medical and dental providers, connecting dentists to the referral system, and monitoring the process, providing following-up on incomplete referrals; 3) promoting evidence-based preventive care by educating and preparing primary care providers and dentists to follow standards of care for preventive services such as fluoride varnish, sealants, and cleanings, providing outreach and education to families of high-risk children, coordinating with existing oral health promotion programs, and better aligning provider incentives to increase provision of preventive care; and 4) enabling care management and monitoring by developing and implementing a statewide dental quality monitoring system using recently validated American Dental Association measure sets.

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