Singhal Receives Leverett Award

PPC Graduate Research Assistant Astha Singhal was awarded the American Association of Public Health Dentistry’s First Place Leverett Graduate Student Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dental Public Health.  It was presented to her at the National Oral Health Conference (NOHC) in April.  The award was based on her study, "Eliminating Medicaid Adult Dental Coverage Led To Increased Dental Emergency Visits And Associated Costs"

A journal article based on the same study will be published in the May 2015 issue of Health Affairs. The link to the abstract is here.

All states are required to provide dental coverage for children in Medicaid, but dental coverage for adult enrollees is optional. When faced with a fiscal crisis, several states limit or eliminate adult dental coverage, as California did in July 2009. Singhal and coauthors examined the impact of California’s elimination of adult dental coverage on Emergency Department (ED) use for dental problems, over 2006-2011. They also compared costs associated with dental ED visits and Medicaid savings from dental coverage cuts.

The researchers found that the policy change led to a significant and immediate increase in dental ED use, amounting to more than 1,800 additional dental ED visits per year. Young adults, members of racial/ethnic minority groups, and urban residents were disproportionately affected. Average yearly costs associated with dental ED visits increased by 68 percent. The authors note that this evidence is particularly important as the Medicaid population expands nationally under the Affordable Care Act and several states contemplate changing their Medicaid adult dental coverage policy.

The Leverett Award is given based on the following criteria:  originality and design of the project, description of results and conclusions, quality of the results from the project, scientific value of the project, Dental Public Health value of the project, quality of the project presentation, and demonstrated mastery of the subject.

Singhal is a research assistant with the Health Policy Research Program at the PPC and has a PhD in Preventive and Community Dentistry. Her research focuses on emergency department visits for dental problems. Astha is also a Presidential Fellow at the University of Iowa and Public Relations Coordinator for a student organization - Association for India's Development.