G-2402-20186

Oral Health Kansas (OHK) is committed to improving oral health in Kansas through advocacy, public awareness, and education. Over the last five years, with substantial support from consumers and partner organizations, OHK has helped significantly improve oral health care access in Kansas.

In earlier years of support (2018), CareQuest Institute grant funding supported OHK to convene and collaborate with its closest organizational partners to establish a coordinated system of advocacy, increase capacity of the dental workforce, and bring oral health into mainstream conversation by changing public perception. Since then, OHK has led the state’s advocacy efforts to increase access to dental benefits for adults enrolled in KanCare and, more recently, Oral Health Kansas successfully launched the initial phase of their community-informed implementation of the new adult dental benefit. OHK has increased awareness of the dental benefit to community members and policymakers through education, communications, and political campaigns.

Relative to their track record of successful community engagement, in 2022, OHK formed the Sedation Dental Care Task Force, a stakeholder collaboration dedicated to understanding the dental care access challenge for people with disabilities. As the convener of the task force, OHK is viewed as a leader in this space by legislators, state agencies, consumers, and providers.

The proposed activities for 2024-25 will help OHK quickly react to the issues limiting access to dental care for underserved Kansans. OHK will continue to convene both the Lived Experience Advisory Group and the Sedation Dental Care Task Force to identify current gaps and obstacles in accessing and delivering sedation dentistry, as well as begin to identify and advocate for viable solutions that are driven by consumer and community needs.

Along with addressing emerging access issues, OHK proposes to continue their efforts to advocate for expanded access to dental services for the Medicaid population. OHK is advocating during the 2024 Kansas Legislative Session to integrate preventive dental services into the Medicaid state plan to ease confusion and streamline benefits. OHK will soon know if their next steps will be implementation or continued advocacy.

This grant from CareQuest Institute would constitute approximately 34% of the organization’s overall budget. The requested grant funds will be used primarily to support staff salaries across four project roles. In addition to personnel, grant funding will also be applied toward travel expenses related to in-person stakeholder meetings, stipends for members of the Lived Experience Advisory Group, and communications.