The Government has announced the closure of the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme from the 1 December 2012. They have said no Medicare benefits will be payable for any dental services provided under Medicare from this date. They have said the cost of any future dental services will need to be met by the patient.

Patients who have not received the relevant GP care planning items prior to 8 September 2012 will not be able to access the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme from 8 September 2012 and prior to 1 December 2012.

This is not the first time we have seen a statement like this from the Government.

Will this actually happen? We are not really sure, it will be up to the independent cross benchers as to whether they support the new scheme or not. My understanding is it will be presented to parliament at the next sitting which is September 10th, to be passed or not.

If you have any contact with the independents I would start letting them know what you think.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian_Search_Results?q=&mem=1&par=-1&gen=0&ps=10&st=2&sr=0

We do not have control as to whether this scheme ends or not. So this is what you should do now!

If you are due for a new referral go and see your doctor GP by September the 7th and get the paperwork done, then come and see me. We have until December the 1st to get the work done that may need to be done. Remember our goal is to get as stable as possible so hopefully under the new scheme we will only have to concentrate on maintenance. I have a team ready to go.

My thoughts on the closure of the CDDS is this;

The new scheme will not service the community anywhere near as well as the CDDS. Even though the CDDS had some flaws, it has been very successful through allowing enough funding over 2 years to not only diagnose problems, but treat them by restoring health, function and wellbeing both physically and psychologically.

Unfortunately the new scheme budgets $1000 over two years for dental care. If you had perfect teeth and needed little work then you may be ok. There is no way that with 90% of my CDDS patients would I have been able to treat them so well with $1000 over two years. It basically covers a check, clean and fluoride and diagnostic radiographs once a year. I wouldn’t even be able to make a denture with $1000, I may be able to do a filling or take a really bad tooth out. There is not enough funding per patient to really make a difference to a patient’s oral health.

I am still seeing many new patients who need significant work, so I hope the new scheme is not passed.

The future with the new scheme if passed;

Thankfully most of the patients I have been seeing under the CDDS won’t require extensive work for a while and are relatively orally stable. This means that if they fit into the new scheme we can maintain the normal maintenance programme and this will be able to be funded with the $1000 over two years, with just the occasional minor work.

Yours sincerely
Dr Adam Alford
MLC Centre Dental Surgery
(02) 9232 3866