Newsletter
CANBERRA, Australia: The Australian Department of Health has refused claims by the Australian Dental Association (ADA) to delay the introduction of the Child Dental Benefits Scheme in January 2014. They agreed, however, to conduct a timely review of the programme, which is intended to subsidise dental care for over three million children.
In the organisation’s letter, ADA president Dr Karin Alexander said that dentists feel largely unprepared for the introduction of the programme and firstly need to be fully briefed about the details. She said that there is still a grey area around the administrative requirements of the scheme which, she said, could force dentists into making mistakes once it is introduced.
According to ministry officials, information leaflets are currently in preparation and will be sent to dentists l in order to provide further details of the programme. Furthermore, an e-learning module and telephone hotline for dental provider inquiries will be available on the ministry’s website soon.
They also said that there will also be national campaign to inform parents of the eligibility requirements.
Created as part of the former government’s National Dental Health Reform, the scheme entitles children between ages 2 and 17, who are on income support or whose parents receive certain tax benefits, to treatment costs of AUS$1,000 for basic dental procedures like examinations or extractions over a period of two calendar years. It will replace the current Medicare Teen Dental Plan which was introduced under the Labour government back in 2008. The new scheme is intended to provide an estimated AUS$3 billion of dental benefits to children throughout the country.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, access to dental care services remains low in the country, particularly for children from low income households.
