December 20th, 2017 by WCBC Radio
Delegate Mike McKay has been working for several years to restore adult dental care to Maryland's Medicaid program. During the 2017 legislation, McKay, R-Washington/Allegany, filed a House bill to authorize the state's Medicaid program to include restored coverage for dental care for impoverished adults, which was cut from the state's program as a money-saving measure in 1984. As the session neared it's end, McKay persuaded the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to include the authorization in his bill to study emergency room costs for dental care for these patients. That bill passed both houses. Looking at Allegany County, McKay says Medicaid recipients are going to hospital emergency rooms when they have a toothache, and the best an ER, which is not equipped to give dental care, can do is give them pain medication. That, he says, can lead to opioid addiction…
McKay said he will meet with Budget and Management Secretary David Brinkley to discuss the next steps. He hopes to convince Gov. Larry Hogan to include adult dental care for Medicaid recipients in the state's fiscal 2019 budget. The new fiscal year begins July 1, 2018. He said with state funding and the federal match, Medicaid could cover two cleanings per patients per year, plus some extractions and fillings…
