Some safety net dental clinics seek to increase patient care revenue by increasing the proportion of patients for whom they receive higher reimbursement. Clinics capture higher revenues from patients enrolled in Medicaid than from minimum-pay and most sliding-fee-schedule patients. For example, by limiting clinic eligibility to women and children (who are more likely than men to have Medicaid coverage) the payer mix can be shifted from minimum-pay patients to patients with higher reimbursement rates. However, some clinics consider this type of practice inconsistent with their mission.

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