An inner-city community center has existed in your city for several decades to serve the local urban community. The center has provided varied social services to the community and offered a meeting place for the community members. Twenty years ago the center added a comprehensive health center that was approved and funded as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The FQHC has been providing comprehensive dental services for the last 10 years. However, a staff pediatrician at the FQHC has noted that she is unable to get dental appointments for her patients who have obvious dental caries. Dental services are primarily adult focused, with less than 7% of dental patients in the pediatric age range. Concerned about this problem of limited pediatric dental service availability, the pediatrician collaborated with colleagues to develop a proposal for presentation to the governing board of the health center to expand pediatric oral health services to include screening and risk assessment followed by preventive services, oral examination, and necessary dental treatment. The board accepted the proposal and appointed a committee to explore solutions and develop a grant proposal for increased HRSA funding to accomplish this goal.
-As the governing board reviews the grant proposal developed by the committee, it considers the future changes recommended in our nation to improve access to oral health care for this underserved population. All the following EXCEPT one are future changes recommended for this purpose. Which one is the EXCEPTION?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Numerous recommendations have been made that are designed to increase access to dental care. Several of those recommendations are listed in this question. Transitioning from a pluralistic system to an entirely public system of providing oral health care is not one of them. Pluralism is valued by modern societies and can be an asset in that it can enhance efficiency if designed and managed properly. The Affordable Care Act has provisions to authorize funding for new workforce models and to increase funding for community health centers and school-based health centers. A Healthy People 2020 objective is to increase the proportion of community health centers that have an oral health component. The interprofessional collaborative approach to practice and education is one of the key elements recommended to increase access. Increasing the use of teledentistry has been suggested to enhance interprofessional collaboration, increase workforce capacity, and bring oral health care to hard-to-reach areas where there are no or very few dentists.

An Inner-City Community Center Has Existed in Your City for Several