Higher Medicaid Dental Payments Linked to More Children’s Visits, Better Oral Health

AHRQ Stats: Medical and Dental Provider Visits by Race

In 2019, 43.3 percent of non-Hispanic White Americans visited both a medical and dental provider, compared with just 26.4 percent of non-Hispanic Black Americans and 25.3 percent of Hispanic Americans (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #544, Number and Percentage of the Population with Any Dental or Medical Visits by Insurance Coverage and Geographic Area, 2019.)

Today's Headlines:

• Higher Medicaid Dental Payments Linked to More Children’s Visits, Better Oral Health
• Limited Evidence Supports the Use of Common Treatments for Epilepsy in Infants, AHRQ Report Finds
• Register Now for HHS’ Nov. 14 Listening Session on Protecting the Safety of Patients and Healthcare Workers
• New Application Programming Interface Makes It Easier To Search, Use AHRQ’s Resources and Repositories
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network
• AHRQ-Funded Resource Provides Data To Characterize Healthcare Organizations and Systems
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Higher Medicaid Dental Payments Linked to More Children’s Visits, Better Oral Health

More generous Medicaid coverage for dental care was linked to modest improvements in preventive dental visits and oral health, a new study in JAMA Health Forum concluded. Rates of untreated tooth decay were twice as high for children from low- or limited-income families compared with children from middle- or high-income families; they were also higher for Hispanic and Black children compared with White children. Although State Medicaid programs cover children’s dental services, fewer than half of all publicly insured children get recommended care. Researchers used national data to compare 15,738 Medicaid-enrolled children with 16,867 children covered by private insurance ages 6 to 17 between 2016 to 2019. They found that higher Medicaid dental payment rates were associated with more frequent preventive dental visits, especially among Hispanic children, and excellent oral health as reported by parents. Access the abstract.

Limited Evidence Supports the Use of Common Treatments for Epilepsy in Infants, AHRQ Report Finds

Options exist to treat epilepsy in infants, although the evidence is limited, according to a new evidence review by AHRQ. The findings from the AHRQ report were described in two concurrent publications in the journal Neurology, one reviewing the evidence on surgical treatments, and the other reviewing the evidence on medication and dietary treatments. The first review provided low-strength evidence suggesting some infants achieved seizure freedom after epilepsy surgery. The other review found that some infants given levetiracetam are more likely to be seizure free, but data on six other medications were insufficient to determine effectiveness. For diets, the ketogenic diet eliminated seizures for some infants, and both the ketogenic diet and the modified Atkins diet reduced average seizure frequency, but reductions were greater with the ketogenic diet. Dietary harms were not well-reported. Access the AHRQ evidence review, which was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Register Now for HHS’ Nov. 14 Listening Session on Protecting the Safety of Patients and Healthcare Workers

Join the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including leaders from AHRQ, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration, as they recommit to the advancement of patient and healthcare worker safety. On Nov. 14, from 1 to 2:40 p.m. ET, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will convene a livestreamed listening session including chief executive officers of the country's largest healthcare systems, board members, organizational patient safety leaders, and patient and family safety advocates. HHS plans to co-create a National Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety. Healthcare systems, federal partners, patients and families, and other stakeholders are invited to join the National Action Alliance and work together to ensure the safety of patients and healthcare workers. Register now for the livestreamed event, and access more information about the National Action Alliance.

New Application Programming Interface Makes It Easier To Search, Use AHRQ’s Resources and Repositories

A new resource from AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI) makes it easier for researchers and clinicians to search, find and use information from the agency’s evidence-based resources and repositories. The CEPI Evidence Discovery and Retrieval (CEDAR) application programming interface allows health information technology developers to build platforms that can integrate AHRQ’s research findings into their systems, which can then be used by researchers, clinicians and patients. CEDAR provides access to repositories and programs including the Systematic Review Data Repository, the Effective Health Care Program, CDS Connect and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. CEDAR is free, publicly available and uses commonly used health information standards and technologies. Access details about CEDAR.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Designing safety interventions for specific contexts: Results from a literature review.
• Rates of surgical consultations after emergency department admission in Black and White Medicare patients.
• Medication adverse events in the ambulatory setting: a mixed-methods analysis.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

AHRQ-Funded Resource Provides Data To Characterize Healthcare Organizations and Systems

A new AHRQ-funded database, the National Survey of Healthcare Organizations and Systems, 2017-2018, provides public access to a subset of survey items that characterize organizational features and assess the care delivery capabilities of healthcare systems, primary and multispecialty care physician practices, and hospitals. The datasets were developed by the Dartmouth Center of Excellence (Dartmouth, Berkeley, Harvard, Mayo Clinic) with funding from AHRQ’s Comparative Health System Performance Initiative. The surveys covered mental and behavioral health, information collection for quality improvement, Accountable Care Organization participation and other topics.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Social risk adjustment in the hospital readmissions reduction program: a systematic review and implications for policy. Rogstad TL, Gupta S, Connolly J, et al. Health Aff. 2022 Sep;41(9):1307-15. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association between advanced image ordered in the emergency department on subsequent imaging for abdominal pain patients. Odeh Couvertier V, Patterson BW, Zayas-Cabán G. Acad Emerg Med. 2022 Sep;29(9):1078-83. Epub 2022 Jun 30. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Breast biopsy recommendations and breast cancers diagnosed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lowry KP, Bissell MCS, Miglioretti DL, et al. Radiology. 2022 May;303(2):287-94. Epub 2021 Oct 19. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Outcomes of remote activity monitoring for persons living with dementia over an 18-month period. Gaugler JE, Rosebush CA, Zmora R, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022 Aug;70(8):2439-42. Epub 2022 May 09. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development and assessment of a new framework for disease surveillance, prediction, and risk adjustment: the diagnostic items classification system. Ellis RP, Hsu HE, Siracuse JJ, et al. JAMA Health Forum. 2022 Mar 25;3(3):e220276. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Translating ethnographic data into knowledge, skills, and attitude statements for medical scribes: a modified Delphi approach. Corby S, Ash JS, Whittaker K, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022 Sep 12;29(10):1679-87. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Burden and characteristics of skin pain among children with atopic dermatitis. Cheng BT, Paller AS, Griffith JW, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 Apr;10(4):1104-6.e1. Epub 2021 Dec 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development and usability testing of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality common formats to capture diagnostic safety events. Bradford A, Shahid U, Schiff GD, et al. J Patient Saf. 2022 Sep 1;18(6):521-5. Epub 2022 Apr 22. Access the abstract on PubMed®.