KOHC members and advocates met virtually on Friday, March 27th for the KOHC March Quarterly Meeting to discuss important updates toward our goals of improving oral health education and access to care throughout the state.
The meeting began with updates about the University of Pikeville Tanner College of Dental Medicine from Dr. Jill Keaton, Professor and Dean. Noting data cited in KOHC's 2023 Landscape Assessment that fewer than half of Kentucky children on Medicaid or KCHIP received dental visits, Dr. Keaton shared information about their 2026 research project underway to assess the reasons why Medicaid patients in Appalachia don't use their benefits and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve oral health outcomes for underserved populations. This includes small-scale piloting of teledentistry to evaluate how it can be implemented and received, as well as academic integration with first year dentistry students.
Jeff Allen with the Kentucky Board of Dentistry shared information about recent and ongoing regulatory and legislative policy changes. A public hearing regarding the proposed changes is scheduled for 5/21/2026, and public comments are being accepted through 5/31/2026.
Next Alicia Whatley, Senior Policy and Advocacy Director with Kentucky Youth Advocates and KOHC, led a discussion about KOHC policy priorities. These included legislative updates about water fluoridation and budget allocations for Medicaid, as well as an analysis of how pending changes brought forth through regulations and Kentucky's work with the Rural Health Transformation grant could utilize public health registered dental hygienists to increase access to care.
Dr. Pamela Stein, who is currently serving as the Clinical Advisor and Interim Lead with the Oral Health Initiative, Kentucky Rural Transformation Project, Kentucky Department of Public Health, shared updates about Kentucky's participation in the federally administered Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program.
Dr. Stein discussed how despite Kentucky's being in the top 12 states for funding – $213 million – through the RHT Program, Kentucky would need to reapply each year of the 5-year grant and the pool of funding could change depending on state performance and participation rates. Oral health is one of five priority areas which get a slice of the budget. Plans include increasing the number of public health dental hygiene teams in Kentucky, adding teledentistry hubs at each of Kentucky's dental schools, and utilizing Community Health Workers across all five priority areas.
The meeting concluded with Coalition and member updates.
