Public health partnership bringing affordable dental clinic to Washtenaw County

Keeping up with proper dental care can be nearly impossible for low-income residents. Though covered by Medicaid, low reimbursements to dentists prevent many clinics from accepting the program, leaving many to skip preventive care altogether. With the recent Medicaid expansion, the demand for dental care in this underserved demographic is about to grow. 

 

Thanks to a new partnership between Washtenaw County Public Health and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, the Washtenaw County Dental Clinic will begin to address that need in 2015.

 

"We're really excited about the clinic because it is going to provide service to some of the most vulnerable people in our community," says acting health officer Ellen Rabinowitz. "This has always been a huge need."

 

Should all move ahead as planned, the Washtenaw County Dental Clinic will open Jan. 2, 2015. The 11-chair office will serve a about 6,000 patients each year with an estimated15,000 clinic visits. It will be located in Ypsilanti's Haab Building on N. Huron St., thanks to St. Joseph Mercy Health System's donation of space. 

 

The clinic, says Rabinowitz, "is very much a partnership project." In addition to St. Joe's, the Washtenaw Health Plan and Michigan Community Dental Clinics are partners in the project, supplying funds and contracting with the clinic for staffing, respectively. All told, the clinic is expected to cost $1.2 million initially, all of which is planned to be reimbursed to the county by the operations of the cost-neutral project.