[AZTheta]

carnation, kd cat said in a few words what I am saying below:

It appears that the majority of the patients discussed in the article were Medicaid ("peachcare"?) eligible. I have had interactions with various pediatric dental clinics in Tucson who were treating children that were on my caseload. These children were AHCCCS ("Access" - AZ version of medicaid) eligible, meaning that the State was paying for their care. These children and their parents were being treated in ways that caused me to question the dental clinic; the result in all cases where I made a polite phone call was that the children went elsewhere for treatment, based on the information that I was able to elicit from the clinic. You would be stunned to hear some of the comments made by both front office staff and dentists/hygienists regarding their AHCCCS clients.

There are ethical dentists who take AHCCCS patients but all too often, it is the "dental clinics" that seem to pull in the AHCCCS families. It is a matter of education and information, and often - transportation. These clinics are on bus lines. They are not up in the foothills.

In my opinion, this particular practice took advantage of people from a socio-economic status that did not permit them to select dental care or be proactive and assertive in their care choices. And this clinic was likely committing fraud on the Medicaid system as well. I've seen some messed up mouths in little ones, but nothing quite like the procedures described in the article.