Press Release

Baltimore, MD — Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (Md.-07) applauded the Maryland Dental Action Committee for the recommendations set forth in its report, Access to Dental Services for Medicaid Children in Maryland, and encouraged Governor Martin O’Malley to fully implement the recommendations presented.

“This report gives Maryland the opportunity to become a model for the rest of the country and ensure that every child, regardless of race or economic background, will have access to quality dental care,” Congressman Cummings said. “I am confident that Governor O’Malley will see how critical these recommendations are to protecting the health of our children—one of the most vulnerable groups of our society.”

Many of the recommendations made by the committee echoed suggestions from a letter Congressman Cummings sent to Governor O’Malley earlier this year outlining steps that should be taken at the state level to improve access to pediatric dental care. Recommendations from the Congressman with which the Dental Action Committee agreed include:

• Creating a public education campaign about the importance of dental care
• Strengthening the dental safety net to ensure that every child has access to a dentist
• Allowing the state to contract directly with a dental provider, eliminating barriers to dental care
• Enhancing the dental workforce trained in pediatric dentistry

“I am very pleased that the Dental Action Committee was able to provide such comprehensive recommendations,” Congressman Cummings said. “However, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of targeting reimbursement rates toward desired services such as early care and prevention.”

Congressman Cummings has been an active leader in the fight to provide pediatric dental access, prompted by the tragic death of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old boy from Maryland who died this February when a tooth infection spread to his brain.

In addition to reaching out to Governor O’Malley to foster improvement at the state level, Congressman Cummings has also been actively working at the federal level to find a solution to the children’s dental crisis. He introduced Deamonte’s Law, H.R. 2731, to increase dental services in community health centers and train more individuals in pediatric dentistry, and he authored provisions in the re-authorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), part of the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, H.R. 3162. These provisions will expand CHIP by providing critical access to dental care, which is not currently mandated.

He has also been working closely with UnitedHealth Group, the insurance company that provided Medicaid coverage to the Driver family.  Last month, at the suggestion of Congressman Cummings, UnitedHealth teamed up with the University of Maryland Dental School, providing more than $170,000 annually to enact new services and programs to enhance pediatric dental services in Maryland.

“The lack of access to dental care among children cannot be solved with any one action,” Congressman Cummings said. “I have made it my personal mission to tackle this problem on multiple fronts and guarantee that we do everything necessary to produce a solution.”

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