Policy evaluation of family dentist system for students and children of low-income households and its suggestions
Submitted by siadmin on Thu, 03/09/2017 - 15:26Abstract
The amount of personal and public expenditure for oral health in Seoul has increased significantly over the years. Especially for students and children, the number of cavities of them was much more than OECD. Also there emerges the view that oral health of children is related with their parents’ socioeconomic status which brings about disparities in use of dental services. Against the backdrop of the situation, this study evaluates the policy “Family dentist system for students and children of low-income households” which has started since 2012 as a demonstration project(including 6 out of 25 autonomous districts) of Seoul. Drawing the results and lessons from evaluations, the study provides some policy suggestions to improve this policy as a sustainable program to all autonomous districts in Seoul.
It is found that the policy needs to increase its enrollees and budget to cover increased students. For payment system, this study recommends that it needs to be changed from a mixed payment system, both for per diem payment and fee for service payment, to a capitation which can cover all grades of elementary school.
There is a limitation in data for analysis due to a short observation period, this study could not find out the clinical effectiveness of the policy. However, this study finds out the improved recognition of students and parents, positive recognition of participating dentists for the policy. Also this study confirms that limits in governance where all stake holders can not participate in the policy and supervision and regulation are insufficient in operating this policy.
Contents
01 Introduction
1_Background and purpose of the study
2_Main contents and research methods
02 Literature reviews
1_Registered dentist program
2_Relation between oral health status and preventive dental care and screening service
3_Previous studies in registered dentist program research
4_Oral health promotion programs in high income countries
03 Policy evaluation of Seoul registered dentists program
1_Input basis evaluation
2_Process basis evaluation
3_Output and outcome basis evaluation
04 Current value of the services provided and reimbursement level
1_Current value of services provided
2_Reimbursement level for dental clinic
05 Conclusion and policy suggestions