Public Dental Safety Net in Iowa: Capacity and Readiness for Health Care Reform

Objective: Examine the current capacity of Iowa’s public dental safety net and organizational readiness for implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Methods: We surveyed Iowa Community Health Center (CHC) dental clinics for factors related to clinic capacity and organizational readiness for ACA-related change. Results: With 14 clinics (93%) responding, clinics had means of 13,064 patient visits and 23% broken appointments in 2012. Seventy percent of clinics reported high confidence in their ability to respond to changes associated with health care reform. However, over 60% agreed that current circumstances limited their ability to respond to these challenges. Conclusions: CHC dental clinics in Iowa understand ACA-related changes regarding their patient population, but are limited in their ability make needed changes in response to increased demand. This may affect the clinics’ transition into an environment with increased demand for dental services as a result of Medicaid expansion in Iowa.