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Michigan Oral Health Coalition (MOHC) was launched in 2003 as the state oral health coalition with the mission to improve oral health in Michigan by focusing on prevention, health promotion, oral health data, access and the link between oral health and overall health.

Over time, MOHC has worked with grassroots and state advocacy partners across the state to define an oral health agenda. In 2020, despite COVID-19 and a transition in leadership, MOHC was able to produce some meaningful outcomes, such as: instituting a Kindergarten dental screening with the state and extending the Health Moms, Healthy Babies dental benefit to one-year post-partum.

This proposal falls under the Advancing Equity funding initiative, and the Increasing Community Voice and State Advocacy sub-initiative and seeks to advance a restructuring of the Medicaid adult fee for service (FFS) dental benefit. Pursuing this change is built on extreme access disparities, low participation, and low utilization, largely related to the aged, disabled, and very low-wealth communities in the state.

With this in mind, MOHC will develop a briefing paper on their state’s FFS program compared to others, lead an advocacy campaign focused on both the Governor’s office and state legislature, and train and activate the 7 local coalitions around the state as community voices. Additionally, through this funded project they will leverage their statewide data dashboard to produce an Oral Health Report Card, an annual tally on dental insurance coverage, and an annual report of chronic diseases that touch on both the medical and dental side, such as heart disease, diabetes, and oral cancer.

There is specific value in this proposal for CareQuest Institute as we seek to learn how advocacy organizations and communities can be vehicles for equitable payment reform. Additionally, there are opportunities to learn from the implementation of the state data dashboard and policy changes align with our priorities.

The requested amount for the grant was $150,000. In considering our budget and grantmaking approach this year, our recommendation is to fund at $125,000. About a third of the budget is for staff time, with the remaining being for contracts and stipends to local coalitions and contractors to support the updating of the state data dashboard.