ReachOut Healthcare America facts for kids
ReachOut Healthcare America (also known as RHA) is a company that helps organize dental care. Its main office is in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The company is part of Morgan Stanley, a big financial company. ReachOut works in many states across the U.S. In 2011, it helped arrange dental care in 8,700 schools. They also helped nearly 500,000 children get dental check-ups that year. By May 2012, they had helped 1.5 million patients. ReachOut aims to help children who might not easily get dental care, especially those covered by Medicaid, a government health program.
The company has a special program called "Big Smiles." This program helps dentists visit schools in the U.S. to provide dental care to children. ReachOut also helps arrange dental services for U.S. soldiers. In the past, they also helped older people and those with disabilities in nursing homes. However, in December 2011, they stopped their program for nursing homes.
Some people have raised concerns about the Big Smiles program. Chris Alltucker from The Arizona Republic reported that critics believed the program focused too much on getting money from Medicaid. They worried that some dentists might perform many, sometimes unnecessary, procedures. ReachOut Healthcare America, based in Phoenix, says it provides a very important service. They state they help children who otherwise wouldn't have access to dental care. The company also says it does not hire dentists directly. It also states it does not make decisions about patient care for the dentists who visit schools.
Contents
A Look at ReachOut's History
How It Started
ReachOut was started in 1997 by Michael Howell and Daniel Goldsmith. At first, the company helped arrange dental services for patients in nursing homes in Michigan. Later, they began to help schools. By late 2003, ReachOut also helped foster programs, group homes, homeless shelters, and mental health centers.
In 2005, the company started helping five school districts in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Growth and Challenges
In November 2007, a company called Sentinel Capital Partners invested money in ReachOut. This helped ReachOut grow a lot. The number of patients they helped increased by 500%. They also bought two other companies that did similar work. Later, ReachOut became part of Morgan Stanley Private Equities.
In October 2011, a boy from Camp Verde, Arizona had a dental procedure from a dentist connected to ReachOut. His mother, Stacey Gagnon, said the dentist performed work without her permission. The boy's parents, Darren and Stacey Gagnon, filed a legal complaint against the dentist and ReachOut. In November 2011, Dan Brown, who was the superintendent of the Camp Verde Unified School District at the time, sent a letter. This letter told ReachOut to stop working in the school district's buildings.
ReachOut also used to work with the Clark County School District in Nevada. This is the largest school district in that state. In December 2011, the district ended its partnership with ReachOut. Ken Alltucker of the Arizona Republic reported that some parents complained. They said ReachOut had done major dental work, like fillings and crowns, without telling parents properly. However, the main reason for ending the partnership was a concern. The district worried that students were not getting proper emergency or after-hours care. This was because ReachOut dentists only visited twice a year.
Amanda Fulkerson, a spokesperson for the district, said that many children felt pain after procedures done by ReachOut. Many school nurses also had concerns. Fulkerson stated, "They (ReachOut) were going well beyond what we consider preventive care." She added, "It was our (school administration's) belief you should be in a proper dental setting, and the board agreed. We terminated the contract." In response, Derryl Brian, a mobile dentist who worked with ReachOut, said that since 2006, dentists working with ReachOut had treated 80,000 children. He also said that most people were happy with the services.
Working with Schools Today
As of August 2012, several school districts in Arizona continued to work with ReachOut. ReachOut helped over 2,000 students in the Peoria Unified School District in Greater Phoenix. ReachOut served twenty schools in Peoria USD that had many students from low-income families. The ReachOut website includes positive comments from a school nurse in Tucson, Arizona. It also has comments from an elementary school principal in the Deer Valley Unified School District in Greater Phoenix.
In the two years leading up to August 2012, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) paid dentists connected to ReachOut $12.5 million. Chris Bird, the CEO of ReachOut Healthcare America, said that during that time in Arizona, dentists working in schools under Dr. Ralph Green treated over 100,000 children. He said they saw about 15 children per day during each school visit. Bird explained that most of the services were preventive. This included check-ups, cleanings, sealants (a protective coating), and fluoride treatments. Fillings were also common. Bird mentioned that only a small number (1.3%) of the procedures involved crowns and root canals.
Important Things to Know
In July 2013, Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus, two U.S. Senators, released a report about dental care companies. This report talked about some concerns raised against ReachOut Healthcare America. However, it also stated that "those practices were not necessarily widespread." The report concluded that problems like unnecessary procedures, not getting parent permission, and patient issues seemed to happen because ReachOut worked with some dentists who didn't follow the rules. The report noted that because of how ReachOut was set up, it was hard for them to control these "bad actors." It also said that ReachOut "had no standards for dentists with whom they contract to obtain parental consent for treatment."
See also
- All Smiles Dental Centers
- Aspen Dental
- Kool Smiles
- Small Smiles Dental Centers
- Smile Starters
- Pediatric dentistry
