The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, American Dental Association and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons are asking CMS to expand access to surgical dental services for children and adults with special needs and disabilities.
The three groups asked to meet with the agency in a June 30 letter to Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, deputy administrator and director of CMS Center for Medicare, and Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator and director of CMS Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, according to a July 7 news release from the ADA.
The proposed meeting would allow the groups to address the dental community's concerns about pediatric and adult access to dental rehabilitation surgery in hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgical center locations, the release said.
The groups cited two problems when it comes to outpatient dental surgery access. The first is dental rehabilitation surgical services for complex dental cases requiring operating room access do not have specific procedural terminology codes. The second is those same dental surgical services are not covered in the ambulatory surgical centers because Medicare regulations do not allow miscellaneous codes to be included on the covered procedures list for ambulatory surgical centers.
The groups said creating billing codes for dental surgical procedures performed under general anesthesia as well as payment for the new code at a rate reflecting the costs involved could help alleviate billing issues, according to the release.
These groups are not alone in their fight to expand coverage. Members of Congress have written letters urging CMS to expand dental coverage under Medicare.