General Info for Dentists
Participating Dentists
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Frequently Asked Questions for Dentists
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Will I need to take referrals on as regular patients?
No. Students referred to your office will continue to receive preventive services and exams through Bridging Brighter Smiles and the Verona Smiles initiative. If the student needs future care, they will be referred to whatever office is associated with their school.
Does my office need to get BadgerCare certified?
No. If you choose to see Verona students in your office, you can do it in one of three ways:
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Volunteer care.
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Subcontract via Verona Smiles.
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Get BadgerCare certified and bill the State of Wisconsin directly.
Each office will choose how they want to provide care.
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In addition, dentists will be asked to report care provided via Verona Smiles so outcomes can be tracked and reported. Verona Smiles also intends to bill the BadgerCare program for services provided by Verona Smiles dentists. These revenues will support staffing and care coordination. As such, participating dentists who don’t plan on billing the BadgerCare program directly will be asked to get certified under the umbrella of Verona Smiles. Your office will not be identified as a Medicaid provider. However, if a dentist prefers not to provide their NPI and be certified, they are welcome to do unreported volunteer care.
If I decide to get BadgerCare certification through Verona Smiles, will I be required to see Medicaid patients?
No. Any participation or certification is specific to the Verona Smiles initiative.
Will we provide orthodontics or any other specialty care?
At this point, specialty care is not included. However, for children with emergent or severe needs, Verona Smiles will try to secure any necessary care.
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What Dentists Can Do
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Hometown Smiles will work with dentists to clearly define expectations for what they can do, including one or more of the following:
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Do comprehensive and periodic exams in the schools.
Participating doctors will come to the schools and do what they do every day. Read x-rays. Look in mouths. Identify what their patients need to be healthy. Once exams are completed, dentists will recommend treatment and patients will be referred to partnering dental offices.
Once treatment needs are identified, treat students in your offices.
Once referred to your office, you can screen the recommended treatment plan and decide if you are comfortable seeing them in your office. If a patient has extensive needs, they will be referred to a pediatric dentist. In short, you can decide what care you provide to which students.
Take kids referred by the schools for emergency needs.
On an ongoing basis, schools will refer any kids that have emergency needs to the offices of participating dentists.
Help assure that any kid in your community who needs dental care gets it.
By committing to the Hometown Smiles initiative, you can help solve the dental access issue one community at a time. There’s no reason students should have teeth rotting in their mouth. You can do something about it.
