PA School Children Should Have Preventive Dental Care provided in school

In 2010, the Pew Foundation published a report on the state of children's dental care in the US. PA earned an "F" on that report. In response, then governor, Ed Rendell, pushed for the creation of the Public Health Dental Hygiene Practitioner license, to create a mid level provider who is licensed to provide dental cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants and education in schools, nursing homes, and other places where citizens have not had access to care. There are now >400 licensed PHDHP's in PA who want to provide care to our most vulnerable citizens. However, there is no provision for these PHDHP's to submit a claim to an insurance company for payment of their services. The claims must be submitted with a dentist's license. This creates a restriction in the PHDHP's ability to provide care they are licensed to provide, creates a middle man that adds cost to the provision of these services, and keeps children from getting preventive dental care. We need your intervention to change this silly restriction. Dentists haven't wanted to treat these citizens. The restrictions should be removed to allow PHDHP's to provide important preventive dental services to children.