The Partnership for Integrating Oral Health Care into Primary Care Project 2019–2021: Final Report (USA)

Author: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, Georgetown University

Full report available here.

The Partnership for Integrating Oral Health Care into Primary Care (PIOHCPC) project was launched to improve access to oral health care by integrating the interprofessional oral health core clinical competencies into primary care. The project targeted pregnant women, children, and adolescents at high risk for oral disease. It was implemented from January 2019 through June 2021 and included three sequential project periods.

Major challenges at the systems level include an insufficient number of dentists enrolled as Medicaid providers and lack of or insufficient Medicaid reimbursement for oral health care provided by PCPs. Other system-level challenges specific to the primary care setting include documenting and tracking oral health care by PCPs in EHRs, staff turnover, lack of connection between EHRs and EDRs, and obtaining buy-in from PCPs and staff to provide oral health care during primary care visits. Despite barriers, the projects had notable achievements related to oral health training of PCPs; clinical workflow development; interprofessional collaboration; documenting and tracking of oral health risk assessments, screenings, fluoride varnish applications, education, and referrals; and Medicaid oral health coverage and reimbursement. Primary care setting team members were also able to establish strong partnerships with their state oral health program and/or Title V MCH health program to support and expand upon the success of their work in other settings across the states, an important accomplishment.