By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Dowagiac can look forward to a "new way of providing services to the underserved" when the dental clinic in the new medical arts facility opens April 16, Jeff Elliott, health officer and administrator of the Van Buren/Cass District Health Department, said Thursday before the Board of Commissioners.
Elliott said the city is planning an open house for noon May 14.
Michigan Community Dental Clinics Inc.'s Dental Clinics North, a 10-clinic network in northern Michigan, is the model for oral care for the underserved, Medicaid-eligible and low-income uninsured, which is defined as $40,000 for a family of four, plus $6,800 for each additional member. Call 1-800-210-1921 for more information.
"They desperately need dental service and a quality of life we all deserve and we all share in this room," said Elliott, who has been the Hartford-based public health administrator since 1983.
"Last July I was struggling with the board on how we were going to continue to provide dental services with the strapped economy and lack of state funds," Elliott said.
There was a year-and-a-half wait to sit in the two dental chairs the public health department already had in Dowagiac.
Executive Director Thomas J. Veryser, DDS, MHSA, told commissioners, "We have been able, through efficiencies of operation, such as communications methods and digital radiography, to cover the costs. We've done nothing monumental except to apply a private practice model to the public health system – and it works.
"Michigan Community Dental Clinics Inc. is a non-profit company whose purpose is to provide management services to dental clinics all over the state. We can take our successful model to other regions.
"As of Feb. 15, we opened a clinic in Hartford. I can tell you that in the three weeks or so we've been operating, we have changed the way dentistry is practiced in Hartford.
"We know it will be successful in Dowagiac as well because it encourages productivity so that they want to stay and we eliminate turnover. We also have a system in place to assure quality. We hired a quality assurance director who taught with me at the University of Michigan for seven years," 1997-2004.
Veryser was a general dentist in private practice in Ubly and Bad Axe in the Thumb from 1970 to 1996.
Dental Clinics North are in Traverse City, Manistee, Cadillac, West Branch, Mancelona, East Jordan, Gaylord, Alpena, Petoskey and Cheboyban and serve 21 rural counties.
They employ 22 dentists and 44 dental assistants. They have served 25,000 clients with more than 50,000 visits annually. The Northern Dental Plan was initiated in April 2004.
"Last year," Elliott said, "we served about 1,800 individuals. The first five weeks of this operation we served 847. The way Dentrix (a dental practice management computer system implemented in October 2004) works is that when they show up we identify as they sit in the chair the work they need by looking at the whole mouth X-ray. A plan is designed and the billing is done before that individual leaves. Our billings will be in excess of $1 million," even though the Hartford opening coincided with heavy snow that slowed most things to a crawl.
"I kept going through the agency and we had cancellations in family planning and kids getting immunizations, but the lobby was packed at the dental clinic. The no-show rate is just about non-existent. We are scheduling now into the latter half of April and the phone rings continuously," Elliott said.
Veryser said 80 percent of patients served up north are on Medicaid, with about 20 percent at reduced rates for uninsured low-income people.
For those eligible, their membership in the Southwest Michigan Dental Plan includes an initial visit with a participating dentist that includes X-rays and an exam, at no additional cost, and reduced rates for all treatment. Membership costs $50 per person.
Commissioner Gordon Bickel, R-Porter Township, was told there are plans to also open a clinic by December in Three Rivers. A closing is scheduled for next Friday.
Also on the drawing board is a facility in Berrien County in the vicinity of Orchards Mall for Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. "Kalamazoo has been talking to us," too, Elliott said.