**GAO-11-96**                      Published: Nov 30, 2010. Publicly Released: Nov 30, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) required GAO to study children's access to dental care. GAO assessed (1) the extent to which dentists participate in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and federal efforts to help families find participating dentists; (2) data on access for Medicaid and CHIP children in different states and in managed care; (3) federal efforts to improve access in underserved areas; and (4) how states and other countries have used mid-level dental providers to improve children's access. To do this, GAO (1) examined state reported dentist participation and the Department of Health and Human Services's (HHS) Insure Kids Now Web site for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and called a non-representative sample of dentists in four states; (2) reviewed national data on provision of Medicaid dental services and use of managed care; (3) interviewed HHS officials and assessed certain HHS dental programs; and (4) interviewed officials in eight states and four countries on the use of mid-level and other dental providers.

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## Office of Public Affairs

Sarah Kaczmarek
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## Topics

Health Care

Access to health careChild health servicesChildrenDental insuranceDental servicesDentistsDisadvantaged personsHealth care programsHealth care servicesHealth insuranceMedicaidOral health

## Multimedia

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