History
The Virginia Oral Health Coalition is a direct outgrowth of an association launched in 2002 – Virginians for Increased Access to Dental Care (VIADC). An all-volunteer organization, VIADC brought together stakeholders from across Virginia with the goal of creating a comprehensive plan to bring excellent oral health to everyone in Virginia.
More Dental Homes for Virginia Children
The resulting 2004 Oral Health Plan of Virginia outlined objectives to improve oral health care in Virginia and has been successful on multiple levels. Most notably, Medicaid reimbursement rate for dental services increased by 30 percent. Prior to VIADC’s efforts, Virginia’s dental reimbursement rate was among the lowest in the nation. This increase helped motivate several hundreds of additional dental providers to care for Medicaid children, giving many Virginia youngsters their first ever dental home.
2009 Oral Health Summit
While the 2004 Oral Health Plan resulted in many successes, many issues remain:
- Only 71 of 135 localities have a dental safety net provider
- Oral health care coverage for Medicaid-eligible adults is limited to emergency extractions
- Few Virginians understand the crucial link between oral health and overall health.
In answer, VIADC convened the 2009 Oral Health Summit to spur creation of a second five-year oral health plan for Virginia. The economic downturn, health reform and increased demands on the all-volunteer membership made evident the need for a new, staffed nonprofit organization to drive the development of the new oral health plan and spurred the creation of the Virginia Oral Health Coalition.
In late 2010, the Virginia Oral Health Coalition received a generous grant from the DentaQuest Foundation to support the coalition’s operations. This support enabled the coalition to begin the process of filing as an independent nonprofit organization, hire staff and begin to work in earnest implementing the 2010 Virginia Oral Health Plan.
The Coalition’s Board of Directors includes the executive director of the Virginia Dental Association, the dental director of Virginia and the chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Virginia Commonwealth University.
