The American Dental Association and its Dental Quality Alliance commended CMS for its proposed rule for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance core set reporting.
Six things to know:
1. The Dental Quality Alliance, established by the ADA in 2008, develops oral healthcare performance measures to improve patient care and safety.
2. The two dental groups submitted comments Sept. 26 to CMS in response to its proposed rule on Mandatory Medicaid and CHIP Core Set Reporting.
3. CMS was applauded for including three of DQA's measures in its proposed rule. The included measures are oral evaluation; dental services; prevention: topical fluoride for children; and sealant receipt on permanent 1st molars.
4. Although the two groups said they support CMS' consideration of Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System data to report on the core set measures, they suggested using DQA's data quality assessments on its dashboard because state TMSIS data submissions may vary.
5. The two organizations also urged CMS to include oral health measures in the Adult Core Set and to require states to report these measures.
6. CMS was also encouraged to assess barriers to dental data exchange and information systems interoperability and to work with other federal offices to identify ways to improve these for dentistry.