If approved by state officials, FAMU's future College of Dental Medicine will use a targeted recruitment program and a low tuition rate to help enroll students who are likely to open practices in rural counties and treat Medicaid patients.
Recruitment
The university’s detailed proposal for a College of Dental Medicine directly addresses the findings of a recent Board of Governors study that pointed out that Florida’s “low Medicaid reimbursement rates are the primary reason that dentists do not participate in the Medicaid program and, in turn, provide care to rural, poor, and minority populations.”
Florida Medicaid is the primary payer for oral health services for the state’s poor citizens. Statistics cited in FAMU’s proposal show that “fewer than 15 percent of Florida dentists treat Medicaid patients.”
FAMU’s dental school will tackle this problem by recruiting most of its students “from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds (low-income families and underrepresented minorities).” The students will also receive the majority of their clinical education in Florida’s rural counties. According to the proposal: “Graduates are much more likely to practice in rural community clinics and private practices and serve more disadvantaged patients, if they are raised and trained in these communities.”
The proposal adds that the “lack of diversity is a significant problem in meeting the oral health needs of Florida’s diverse population. For example, 40 percent of African-American dentists see significant numbers of Medicaid patients compared to 11 percent of White dentists. The workforce needs to reflect the diversity of the population it serves.”
Low tuition
High student loan debt is another problem that discourages Florida's dentists from accepting Medicaid patients. Practicioners are under pressure to keep up with their large, monthly repayments.
FAMU will address this issue by charging an in-state tuition rate of about $27,000 per year, which is lower than the state's two current dental schools. 40 percent of that tuition revenue from will go toward student financial aid.
For the 2010-2011 school year, the University of Florida College of Dentistry is charging $30,936 for in-state students. Nova Southeastern's dental program carries a $48,450 in-state price tag.
The University of Central Florida has also unveiled a proposal for a dental school that will not require public funding, which will make it heavily dependent on tuition revenue for its operating costs. UCF plans to charge in-state students $55,675 per year.
Reducing Florida's dependency on Medicaid dentists trained out-of-state
The ongoing shortage of Medicaid dentists has led Florida to recruit more practitioners from out-of-state. In 2008, former Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill that changed the state’s licensure requirements to allow licensed dentists from other states to work in health care settings that serve some of Florida's most vulnerable citizens.
“By increasing the number of dentists eligible to practice in our state, we can help give children, adults and seniors the dental care that is so important for their overall health,” Crist said.
FAMU's College of Dental Medicine will help Florida become less dependent on Medicaid practicioners who are trained by out-of-state schools.