Facing state litigation, the Romney Administration recently agreed to restore coverage for MassHealth dental services for 35,000 pregnant women and mothers with children up to age three, no later than January 15, 2006.
Coverage for these services was cut in 2002 as the state struggled through a fiscal crisis. The Legislature, in an acknowledgment that the state economy had improved, restored funding for the program in the budget for this fiscal year, which began July 1. But the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services has yet to extend the benefits to the Medicaid recipients. Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Health Law Advocates filed a lawsuit a few days prior to this announcement on behalf of pregnant women and mothers with children up to age three. A preliminary injunction hearing was avoided when the state agreed to a stipulated order restoring comprehensive dental benefits to pregnant women and new mothers by no later than January 15, 2006.
That same day Massachusetts officials submitted a plan amendment to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services requesting federal approval to cover comprehensive dental benefits for pregnant women and new mothers. Emergency regulations will be drawn up to put these benefits into effect. The state will provide appropriate notice to providers regarding the availability of dental benefits for pregnant women and new mothers including a postable document outlining the new benefits.
''My reaction is, how sad that it took a lawsuit for them to do what they should have done," said Leslie Storm, senior staff attorney for Health Law Advocates.
Dick Powers, a spokesman for the Office of Health and Human Services, said the state has been working hard to implement the change since the passage of this year's budget. The difficulty, Powers said, has been in identifying the women who qualify for the dental benefits, and figuring out how to get them on the program. ''It's always been our intention of following through on it, and we have been," he said.
-Adapted from: e-mail "Health Care Reform: What's the Latest?" from Health Care For All, Tuesday, December 20, 2005 and "Romney restores dental benefits to women in MassHealth", By Scott Helman, The Boston Globe, December 20, 2005.12/2005