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 Schools Can Do
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Hometown Smiles will work with schools to clearly define expectations for what they can do, including the following:
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Work with Hometown Smiles to get kids dental care.
Every child who participates in a school's oral health promotion program also could have cavities or other dental care needs. We’ll do comprehensive exams on all the children being served by your dental program and get them to a dentist if they have any identified needs.
Once treatment needs are identified, refer students to your adopted dentists.
Once care needs are identified, you will have a list of dentists who have been “adopted” by each school. Working with Hometown Smiles staff, parents will be referred to whichever office is best for the student and their family.
Refer any kids with emergency dental needs to your adopted dentists.
On an ongoing basis, you should refer any kids with emergency needs to the offices of adopted dentists. To the greatest extent possible, we will try to keep students with the same offices for any operative or emergency care.
