- HIGH
- Regulatory
- Tier 1
- Mainstream Media
MassHealth dental melted down last year. The chaos isn’t over yet, dentists say.
- Source
- The Boston Globe
- Originally at
- news.google.com(opens in a new tab)
Summary and scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol. Not the original publisher.
Why it matters for dental
MassHealth dental providers still face unpaid claims and administrative delays after the state's Medicaid administrator switch disrupted approvals and payments, prompting some practices to cut their Medicaid patient load.
Key points
- 01
MassHealth fired BeneCare in October 2025 after the contractor’s administration of dental claims and prior approvals collapsed.
- 02
DentaQuest resumed administration in under a contract worth up to $34 million through June 2027 and has paid out about $66 million in 2025 unpaid claims.
- 03
At Koko Dental Care, MassHealth’s payment backlog left the practice with $200,000 in unpaid claims and reduced its Medicaid patient share from 90 percent to one-third.
- 04
The Massachusetts Legislature enacted a $1,750-per-patient annual dental coverage cap for adults enrolled in MassHealth.
Who should care
- Owner
- DSO
- Staff
Read the original
The Boston Globe
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