Only 5 dentists signed up as 29K seniors seek subsidized dental care

Article content

OTTAWA • There are currently 27 dental professionals signed up across New Brunswick to administer the federal government’s new dental program, after at least 29,000 seniors in the province enrolled.

Just five are dentists.

It’s a figure the federal Conservative health critic is calling “shameful” on the eve of the program’s start date.

That’s as the Trudeau government says its made changes so that oral health care providers can bill the federal plan without formally signing up for the program, and Canada’s health minister is still promising that “hundreds of thousands” of seniors will receive subsidized dental work in May.

The Canadian Dental Care Plan is set to start providing coverage this week, helping seniors access subsidized care.

The $13-billion program is expected to eventually cover an estimated nine million Canadians with household incomes of less than $90,000 a year who don’t have private dental insurance.

Brunswick News has reported that 29,000 New Brunswick seniors have signed up.

Meanwhile, the feds say just over 5,000 oral health professionals across the country have signed up to take on patients, while maintaining a breakdown of how many are in New Brunswick is unavailable.

But Sun Life, the insurance company the feds have hired to administer the plan, has been updating daily online where those registered can get dental care.

It shows just 27 dental professionals registered in New Brunswick.

Only five of those are actually dentists, while 11 are denturists and another 11 are hygienists.

That’s as there are 355 dentists and 565 dental assistants across New Brunswick.

Eight are listed in the Saint John area, which includes Rothesay and Quispamsis, there are four in the Moncton area, including Dieppe and Riverview, three in Fredericton area, including one in Oromocto, three in Campbellton, and two in Grand Falls.

There is just one each in Bathurst, Shippagan, Perth Andover, Saint Quentin, St. Stephen, and Sussex areas, as well as one in Woodman’s Point, N.B., near Doaktown.

There are currently no providers listed in Edmundston, Miramichi, Sackville, Shediac, and Bouctouche.

Conservative Health critic Stephen Ellis stood in the House of Commons earlier this month to criticize the program’s uptake from dentists.

“In my home province of Nova Scotia, four, not 400 or 14, but four dentists out of 400 have signed up for this program. It is shameful. In Prince Edward Island, it is even easier. The number is zero. There is no debating zero, it is none, zilch, nada,” Ellis said.

“This is a program that has been created without any consultation with respect to dentists.

“It has been creating an incredible administrative burden on dentists. It has also created a conflict where dentists have to sign a contract with a provider, namely the federal government, as opposed to having a relationship with the patient, which is how health care has historically been delivered in this country.”

The feds contend they have made changes.

The Trudeau government announced in mid-April that oral health care providers who provide services to approved Canadian Dental Care Plan clients can bill the insurance company directly without formally signing up for the program.

That does away with the need to sign a contract.

“This also means that Canadian Dental Care Plan clients can see any oral health provider they choose for their care, as long as the provider agrees to direct bill Sun Life for services provided under the plan,” according to a statement from the federal government.

Health Minister Mark Holland said he still believes “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of seniors are going to be seen in May.”

“My objective is to make sure that we do get everybody seen, and that we scale up the existing system,” he said.

“There’s really no reason for a dentist not to participate.

“It’s completely illogical…

“What I’m saying to dentists is to try it once.”

Paul Blanchard, executive director of the New Brunswick Dental Society, confirmed in an email that, by his count, there are also only five dentists in the province signed up.

But he even questioned that number, noting that, of the three in Campbellton, two aren’t licensed in New Brunswick.

The two list their practice as across the bridge in Pointe-à-la-Croix, Que.

New Brunswick’s dentists have questioned the program’s administrative burden as well as its remuneration, contending a reimbursement grid doesn’t include all treatments and comes in at about 82 per cent of the province’s fee guide.

Blanchard said dentists may now wait.

It’s not until July 8 that oral health providers will be able to direct bill Sun Life for services provided on a claim-by-claim basis without formally signing up for the dental plan.

“I believe dentists may be waiting to see how the alternate pathway works out,” Blanchard said. “This won’t be available until July.”