Study Results from Indiana University in the Area of Managed Care Reported (The Relationship Between Preventive Dental Care and Overall Medical Expenditures): Managed Care

2024 APR 03 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Managed Care are presented in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Indianapolis, Indiana, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To examine the relationship between preventive dental visits (PDVs) and medical expenditures while mitigating bias from unobserved confounding factors. Retrospective data analysis of Indiana Medicaid enrollment and claims data (2015-2018) and the Area Health Resources Files.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Indiana University, “An instrumental variable (IV) approach was used to estimate the relationship between PDVs and medical and pharmacy expenditures among Medicaid enrollees. The instrument was defined as the number of adult enrollees with at least 1 nonpreventive dental claim per total Medicaid enrollees within a Census tract per year. In naive analyses, enrollees had on average greater medical expenditures if they had a prior -year PDV (beta= $397.21; 95% CI, $184.23-$610.18) and a PDV in the same year as expenditures were measured (beta= $344.81; 95% CI, $193.06-$496.56). No significant differences in pharmacy expenditures were observed in naive analyses. Using the IV approach, point estimates of overall medical expenditures for the marginal enrollee who had a prioryear PDV (beta= $325.17; 95% CI, -$708.03 to $1358.37) or same -year PDV (beta= $170.31; 95% CI, -$598.89 to $939.52) were similar to naive results, although not significant. Our IV approach indicated that PDV was not endogenous in some specifications. This is the first study to present estimates with causal inference from a quasi -experimental study of the effect of PDVs on overall medical expenditures.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “We observed that prioror same -year PDVs were not related to overall medical or pharmacy expenditures.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The Relationship Between Preventive Dental Care and Overall Medical Expenditures. The American Journal of Managed Care, 2024;30(2). The American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Heather L. Taylor, Indiana University, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Policy and Management, Indianapolis, IN, United States. Additional authors for this research include Ann M. Holmes, Nir Menachemi, Justin Blackburn, Titus Schleyer and Bisakha Sen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.37765/ajmc.2024.89499. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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