Maternal and Child Health – Improving Oral Health Integration Demonstration Projects (MCH-IOHI Projects)

MCH-IOHI Projects will aim to improve access to integrated preventive oral health care (integrated POHC) in primary care services accessible to MCH populations at increased or higher risk for poor oral health. Funding will support an MCH-IOHI Alliance (Alliance), to include key state stakeholders such as policy, practice, and public health leaders; healthcare providers; healthcare payers; and public health surveillance experts. The Alliance will implement a two-tier, state and local, improvement approach that’ll address three core functions: 1) Policy and Practice; 2) Education and Outreach; and 3) Data, Analysis and Evaluation. State level improvements, in support of the local approach, will aim to inform state policy and practice decisions that promote integrated POHC (such as Medicaid payment for oral health services and health professions’ state practice acts);3 increase oral health literacy4 across the state using an organizational health literacy approach;5 and enhance the state’s oral health surveillance (for example, data collection and trends analysis). The local improvement approach will aim to establish, implement, and validate evidence-based models of integrated POHC in communities underserved by oral health care. MCH-IOHI Projects will take part in an MCH-IOHI Consortium-led learning collaborative.