Department of Health

Inappropriate Medicaid Billings for Dental Sealants (Follow-Up Report)

Dental sealants are applied to the biting surfaces of back teeth to prevent tooth decay. In audit 2007-S-58, we examined selected Medicaid payments for dental sealants over a four-year period and identified about $469,300 in potentially inappropriate payments. The payments were potentially inappropriate mainly because it appeared that sealants had been applied to the same teeth more frequently than is allowed by Medicaid regulations. We recommended that the Department of Health investigate the potential overpayments, recover all actual overpayments, and develop controls to prevent such overpayments in the future. When we followed up on these matters with Department officials, we found that they had made considerable progress in their implementation of our recommendations.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-F-55 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.