The Attitudes of Dentists and Their Sentiments for Change Under the Massachusetts Medicaid Program

Abstract

In September, 1966, Massachusetts initiated a Medicaid program which included a sizeable dental component. The purpose of this study, conducted during the summer of 1971, was to determine dentist attitudes toward the Medicaid program. Since a similar study had been conducted in 1968, it was possible to gauge attitude shifts over the intervening three years. The data for this study were obtained from returns to a mail questionnaire. The returns were from a stratified random sample of 439 dentists in the Boston Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. Of the 408 possible respondents, 252 questionnaires were returned for a response of 62 per cent. The older dentists in most cases were more tolerant of certain elements of the Medicaid program. Older dentists, for example, were more likely to agree that Medicaid patients do not present special behavior problems for the dental office. They were less likely to have disagreements with the welfare department. Younger dentists react more critically to the components of the dental Medicaid program. They do, however, support mandatory continuing education to a greater degree than the older dentists which seems antithetical to their concern for government intervention. In general, dentists approved of a special program to deliver care to the poor. However, they objected to specific administrative strategies and inefficiencies.