Meriter-UnityPoint will close Meriter Hospital’s Max W. Pohle Dental Clinic by July 2015. The clinic, which opened in 1977, was reportedly losing $600,000 a year, primarily because of costs associated with sedation dentistry coupled with low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. The medical group serves about 1,800 patients a year, with about 90 requiring sedation therapy due to developmental disabilities or other issues.
As it closes its clinic, Meriter-UnityPoint will give $1 million to Access Community Health Centers so it can expand its dental services, but Access will not be able to offer sedation dentistry because it does not have an operating room. It is unclear where those patients will go.
Access, which has five locations in Madison, Dodgeville, and Sun Prairie, has 13 dentists and plans to add three more to meet the increased demand. Its current capacity of about 14,000 dental patients will likely expand to 19,000 within 18 months.
