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Objectives: To summarize evidence on the impact of oral health on individual and family economic outcomes, describe trends in the literature, and identify areas for additional research to inform public health research and practice. Methods: Searches were conducted within PubMed, CINAHL, EconLit, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, and Web of Science databases. Article review, selection, abstraction, and reporting processes were guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews. Results: Of 2758 unduplicated records identified, 52 met inclusion criteria. Study outcomes included indicators of employment/employability (n = 9), earnings/earnings potential (n = 26), parent missed work and family financial impacts of child oral health (n = 19), and financial loss (n = 3). Dental caries‐related variables were the most common predictors of poorer economic outcomes. Other oral health problems, such as poorer dental functioning or poorer self‐reported oral health status, also were associated with adverse economic outcomes. Significant associations with employment were found among studies that assessed interventions designed to improve oral health. Only one study estimated the impact of oral health on earnings. One‐third of studies conducted multivariable analyses, and 14% incorporated race and ethnicity variables. Conclusions: Although existing evidence suggests associations between oral health problems and poorer economic outcomes, there is a substantial need for more rigorous research to better understand the extent of economic impact of oral health problems and which populations are most affected. Additional high‐quality research is needed to inform which interventions are most likely to improve oral health, reduce adverse economic impacts, and promote health and economic equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This article presents results of the second phase of a project to develop a patient‐centered dental home (PCDH) model. Aims of PCDH model development include broadening the scope of prior dental home definitions to include populations across the lifespan, developing a quality measurement framework to facilitate quality assessment and improvement, and promoting opportunities for medical‐dental integration through alignment with existing PCMH models. This phase determined the components, or conceptual subdivisions, associated with a previously developed PCDH definition and characteristics. Methods: We used a modified Delphi process to obtain structured feedback and gain consensus among the project national advisory committee (NAC). The process included a web‐based survey that asked NAC members to rank the importance of each potential component on a scale of 1–9. Criteria for consensus on component inclusion/exclusion combined a median rating and measure of disagreement. Respondents were also encouraged to provide open‐ended feedback regarding rationale for component ratings and additional suggested components. Results: A total of 47 out of 51 members completed the survey. All 34 components met the quantitative criteria for inclusion in the PCDH model. Changes were made to components based on open‐ended feedback. Conclusions: This project phase further developed a PCDH measurement framework that aims to guide practice transformation, quality measurement and improvement in dental care delivery, as well as integration between medicine and dentistry. Using a Delphi approach with a broad group of stakeholders ensured that components had face validity and were conceptually aligned with the PCDH definition and characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This quality improvement study evaluates the impact of a caries risk assessment (CRA) registry on the following: percentage of children with a documented CRA, receipt of preventive and restorative services, and costs of care.Methods: We used 2014-2019 data for patients aged 0-17 years from 22 locations in a group practice in Wisconsin. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to evaluate changes over time in the following practice-level outcomes: CRA documentation, fluoride receipt, continuing care procedures, restorative procedures, total procedures, and inflation-adjusted costs of care. The same tests were used to compare average procedures and cost for patients a) enrolled and not enrolled in the registry, b) with and without CRA documentation, and c) at high and low caries risk.Results: CRA documentation increased from 13 percent in 2014 to 87 percent in 2019 (P < 0.0001). There were statistically significant increases in the average number of continuing care procedures (from 1.47 to 1.54, P < 0.001), average total procedures (from 7.40 to 8.36, P < 0.001), and inflation-adjusted average cost (from $491.51 to $553.37, P < 0.001) after accounting for multiple comparisons. The average number of restorative procedures decreased, with borderline statistical significance. Average cost was stable for registry-enrolled patients and increased for those not enrolled.Conclusions: The registry achieved the primary goal of improving CRA documentation among children. This quality improvement initiative appears to have had value-enhancing effects by promoting increased receipt of preventive services and decreased restorative services, while maintaining stable average cost of care for registry-enrolled patients over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Addressing inequities in oral health care requires identification of which populations are experiencing performance gaps and the extent of those gaps. This study used Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) measures to examine variations in quality by race and ethnicity.Methods: We used eligibility and claims data for 2018 for children aged <21 years for state Medicaid/CHIP programs available through the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System. For a subset of states with sufficient data quality, we calculated DQA measures of utilization of services, oral evaluation, and topical fluoride. The measures were stratified by race and ethnicity, age, sex, geographic location, and language. We used bivariate logistic regression to analyze relative disparities.Results: Variations in measure scores were noted between racial and ethnic groups. Measure scores were typically lower for non-Hispanic black and American Indian/Alaskan Native children and higher for non-Hispanic Asian and Hispanic children compared with non-Hispanic white children. There also was variation in the patterns of disparities between states. More than two-thirds of states had insufficient race and ethnicity data (>10% missing) to reliably report stratified measure scores.Conclusions: Because disparities vary by state, each Medicaid/CHIP program should evaluate variations in care quality in the context of the population it serves. A critical first step is to improve collection of race and ethnicity. These measurements can be used to set improvement goals that not only raise quality of care for the population overall but also close gaps in performance between racial and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Addressing inequities in oral health care requires identification of which populations are experiencing performance gaps and the extent of those gaps. This study used Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) measures to examine variations in quality by race and ethnicity. Methods: We used eligibility and claims data for 2018 for children aged <21 years for state Medicaid/CHIP programs available through the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System. For a subset of states with sufficient data quality, we calculated DQA measures of utilization of services, oral evaluation, and topical fluoride. The measures were stratified by race and ethnicity, age, sex, geographic location, and language. We used bivariate logistic regression to analyze relative disparities. Results: Variations in measure scores were noted between racial and ethnic groups. Measure scores were typically lower for non‐Hispanic black and American Indian/Alaskan Native children and higher for non‐Hispanic Asian and Hispanic children compared with non‐Hispanic white children. There also was variation in the patterns of disparities between states. More than two‐thirds of states had insufficient race and ethnicity data (>10% missing) to reliably report stratified measure scores. Conclusions: Because disparities vary by state, each Medicaid/CHIP program should evaluate variations in care quality in the context of the population it serves. A critical first step is to improve collection of race and ethnicity. These measurements can be used to set improvement goals that not only raise quality of care for the population overall but also close gaps in performance between racial and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to all value‐based purchasing (VBP) approaches are value metrics, the measurements used to drive improvement, facilitate payment, and evaluate results of VBP programs. This article outlines approaches for adopting meaningful measurement systems that can be used to support VBP in the near term and identifies systemic changes critical to developing more robust measurement systems to advance VBP in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Health registries are commonly used in medicine to support public health activities and are increasingly used in quality improvement (QI) initiatives. Illustrations of dental registries and their QI applications are lacking. Within dentistry, caries risk assessment implementation and documentation are vital to optimal patient care. The purpose of this article is to describe the processes used to develop a caries risk assessment registry as a QI initiative to support clinical caries risk assessment, caries prevention, and disease management for children.Methods: Developmental steps reflected Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommendations for planning QI registries and included engaging "champions," defining the project, identifying registry features, defining performance dashboard indicators, and pilot testing with participant feedback. We followed Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence guidelines.Results: Registry eligibility is patients aged 0-17 years. QI tools include prompts to register eligible patients; decision support tools grounded in evidence-based guidelines; and performance dashboard reports delivered at the provider and aggregated levels at regular intervals. The registry was successfully piloted in two practices with documented caries risk assessment increasing from 57 percent to 92 percent and positive feedback regarding the potential to improve dental practice patient centeredness, patient engagement and education, and quality of care.Conclusions: The caries risk assessment registry demonstrates how dental registries may be used in QI efforts to promote joint patient and provider engagement, foster shared decision making, and systematically collect patient information to generate timely and actionable data to improve care quality and patient outcomes at the individual and population levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study validated two Dental Quality Alliance system-level measures of oral healthcare quality for children - caries-related emergency department (ED) visits and timely follow-up of those visits with a dentist - including formal validation of diagnosis codes used to identify caries-related ED visits and measurement of follow-up care.Methods: The measures were specified for implementation with administrative claims data and validated using data from the Florida and Texas Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs. Measure specification testing and measure score validation used administrative data for 7,007,765 children. We validated the diagnosis codes in claims data by comparisons with manual reviews of 300 records from a Florida hospital ED and calculation of the kappa statistic, sensitivity, and specificity.Results: Overall agreement in caries-related ED visit classifications between the claims data and record reviews was 87.7 percent with kappa = 0.71, sensitivity = 82 percent, and specificity = 90 percent. The calculated measure scores using administrative data found more than four-fold variation between programs with the lowest and highest caries-related ED visit rates (6.90/100,000 member months and 30.68/100,000 member months). The percentage of follow-up visits within 7 days and 30 days ranged from 22-39 percent and 34-49 percent, respectively.Conclusions: These National Quality Forum endorsed measures provide valid methodologies for assessing the rate of caries-related ED visits, an important system-level outcome indicator of outpatient prevention and disease management, and the timeliness of follow-up with a dentist. There is significant variation in caries-related ED visits among state Medicaid programs, and most ED visits do not have follow-up with a dentist within 30 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The inability to access regular dental care may lead to care seeking at hospital emergency departments (EDs). However, EDs generally are not equipped or staffed to provide definitive dental services. This study examined trends and patterns of hospital ED use for dental-related reasons in Florida, a large, diverse state with serious barriers to accessing dental care.Methods: Data for this study were drawn from ambulatory ED discharge records compiled by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration for 2005-2014. Visits for dental-related reasons in Florida were defined by the patient's reported reason for seeking care or the ED physician's primary diagnosis using ICD-9-CM codes. We calculated frequencies, age-specific and age-adjusted rates per 100,000 population, and secular trends in dental-related ED visits and their associated charges.Results: The number of dental-related visits to Florida EDs increased each year, from 104,642 in 2005 to 163,900 in 2014; the age-adjusted rate increased by 43.6 percent. Total charges for dental-related ED visits in Florida increased more than threefold during this time period, from $47.7 million in 2005 to $193.4 million in 2014 (adjusted for inflation). The primary payers for dental-related ED visits in 2014 were Medicaid (38 percent), self-pay (38 percent), commercial insurance (11 percent), Medicare (8 percent), and other (5 percent).Conclusions: Dental-related visits to hospital EDs in Florida have increased substantially during the past decade, as have their associated charges. Most patients did not receive definitive oral health care in EDs, and this trend represents an increasingly inefficient use of health care system resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study describes processes used to develop and test pediatric oral healthcare quality measures and provides recommendations for implementation. Methods At the request of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Dental Quality Alliance ( DQA) was formed in 2008 as a multi-stakeholder group to develop oral healthcare quality measures. For its initial focus on pediatric care, measure development processes included a literature review and environmental scan to identify relevant measure concepts, which were rated on importance, feasibility, and validity using the RAND/ UCLA modified Delphi approach. These measure concepts and a gap assessment led to the development of a proposed set of measures that were tested for feasibility, reliability, and validity. Results Of 112 measure concepts identified, 59 met inclusion criteria to undergo formal rating. Twenty-one of 59 measure concepts were rated as 'high scoring.' Subsequently, 11 quality and related care delivery measures comprising a proposed pediatric starter set were developed and tested; 10 measures met feasibility, reliability, and validity criteria and were approved by the DQA stakeholder membership. These measures are currently being incorporated into Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, and commercial quality improvement programs. Conclusions Broad stakeholder engagement, rigorous measure development and testing processes, and regular opportunities for public input contributed to the development and validation of the first set of fully specified and tested pediatric oral healthcare quality measures, which have high feasibility for implementation in both public and private sectors. This achievement marks an important essential step toward improving oral healthcare and oral health outcomes for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]