'Unacceptable': Dental care crisis leaves 2,000 people waiting as Council Bluffs clinic plans expansion

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — Two thousand people — including 400 children — are on a waitlist at a single dental clinic in Council Bluffs; local healthcare professionals say Iowa's Medicaid reimbursement rates, and a shortage of providers, can force neighbors to drive hours to get care in western Iowa.

"The need here in the southwestern part of Iowa is just overwhelming," said Joel Dougherty, CEO of All Care Health Center.

The nonprofit is breaking ground on a new dental facility that will more than double the number of patients it can serve — up to 8,000 neighbors.

"You can leave Minnesota, on the western half of this state, and if you don't stop here you're going to get all the way to the Missouri Border without finding someone who takes adult Medicaid patients, which is just unacceptable," Dougherty said.

The waiting lists for children are long, too, according to Council Bluffs Community School District's lead nurse, Shawna Dunn.

"Some of these littles, that have never even seen a dentist, and they come in and they're in pain and there's not anything in the health office that we can really do for them," she said.

So Dunn works with Liz Addison at Firefly, a public health nonprofit, to find children help.

"Our partnering dentists are private practice, small business owners — so we're relying on their generosity," Addison said.

They all say dentists are unable to take large numbers of Medicaid patients in Iowa because reimbursements for dental care are so low that dentists would lose money.

Dunn experienced this firsthand.

"I was working fulltime, had three young children, and still needed help with health insurance," Dunn said.

Her children qualified for Medicaid.

"But then there was a change in coverage for Medicaid and dental providers, and we lost our dentist," Dunn said.

Addison conducts dental screenings in Southwest Iowa and says some families drive more than an hour for care.

"I think I could just put it simply, that our medicaid system is seeming to be broken," Addison said.

In the meantime, All Care is expanding to meet the growing need. The entire project is expected to cost $5.7 million.

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