2024 Reports Reveal Patient, Provider Barriers to Accessing and Achieving Good Oral Health Care

COHI research shines spotlight on how the oral health landscape should be improved for Connecticut providers and residents

The Connecticut Oral Health Initiative (COHI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring all Connecticut residents have access to quality, affordable, and equitable oral health services, released two reports in 2024 highlighting barriers faced by both providers and patients in delivering or accessing adequate oral health care.

In November, COHI published Assessing Barriers to Achieving Good Oral Health for Connecticut Residents, a report that revealed a multi-faceted view of obstacles residents face in accessing oral health care. Over 50% of respondents reported experiencing at least one barrier to care, citing – in order of prevalence – fear of the dental office, inconvenient dental office hours, and excessively long wait times for appointments as the most significant challenges. Nearly 56% of respondents reported that they consider their oral health to be “fair or poor.” Across all survey questions, participants enrolled in HUSKY Health or with no insurance were more likely to report barriers and/or rate their oral health as “fair or poor” than those with private insurance.

Barriers also exist for healthcare providers, specifically challenges in participating in HUSKY Health and Medicaid networks. In April, COHI released Expanding the Oral Health Private Provider HUSKY Network: An Assessment of Results of Increased Reimbursement Rates and Provider Participation in Connecticut, which investigated the effects of the 2022 increase in private provider fee-for-service Medicaid reimbursement rates for adult dental services – the first such increase in 14 years. The findings showed that the rate increase had a limited impact on provider participation due to the increase being insufficient and other persistent deterrents to joining or remaining in the network. Providers offered policy recommendations to improve participation, with low reimbursement rates and administrative burdens cited as two of the top barriers to delivering equitable care.

"While our research shows a large percentage of Connecticut residents face barriers to receiving quality and affordable oral health care, the solutions to overcoming these challenges are not a secret and already known to us,” said Gary Turco, COHI Executive Director. “It will take systemic policy changes that invest in additional preventative and restorative services, changes in how oral health is delivered to patients, and more education to empower individuals to advocate for change and practice better home oral health hygiene habits."

Both studies go into greater depth analyzing demographic comparisons and offer several policy recommendations to help break barriers and increase access. The results of the studies helped inform some of COHI’s 2025 legislative priorities, such as the need to expand adult Medicaid and urging Connecticut to adopt Dental Therapy to help address work shortages and widen access to care. Both reports and COHI’s legislative priorities can be found at www.ctoralhealth.org.