Financing dental services in the US: best practice model

• Main Authors: Janet G Bauer, Sue Spackman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Campinas 2015-11-01
• Series: Brazilian Journal of Oral Sciences
• Subjects: Financing dental services. Care delivery. Economic models. Regulation. Doctor-patient relationship
• Online Access: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/bjos/article/view/8641683

The purposes of this paper are to examine the financing of dental services and determine the best practice model in response to the shift of dental services provided from the reduction of manufacturing practices and an increase in service-related activities. This paper discusses the three models used in financing of oral health care services including the Need, Utility or Market, and Program models. Financing dental services now utilizes many types of arrangements including two, third, and fourth-party relationships. All have impacted upon the Market model to modify the traditional, patient-provider relationship in financing dental care services. Each has separate philosophical and political agendas in achieving oral health goals. An increase in demand of dental services due to the retention of teeth in older adults and to the level of dental care desired by the public in general, new variations of the Market model are emerging. A Pragmatic model and its corollary, the Governmental model, are presented as the best model for financing dental services in the US to all segments of the service population for dentistry. It combines the contraposed philosophical and political agendas that exist in a pluralistic society.