SmilePartners: Oral Health as an Economic Development Strategy

July 19, 2017 2017 Graduate Assistant Awardees, RRF Graduate Assistant Awards, Uncategorized

Principal Investigator: Alireza Geshnizjani (UMF, Community Heath Education Program)

Partners: Clyde Mitchell (UMF, Business Economics) and Becca Matusovich (USM, Muskie School of Public Service, Cutler Institute)

Abstract: Preventable dental disease is a major cause of lost school and work days, and one of Maine’s leading causes of avoidable emergency room visits for pain and infection, especially among young adults. Year after year, this takes a serious toll on the financial stability of individuals who often end up with medical debt (the leading cause of unpaid collections and personal bankruptcy in the U.S.) and negatively impacts health insurance costs and business productivity. This project capitalizes on a unique opportunity to research an innovative systemic intervention, called SmilePartners, which provides new options for low-wage employees without dental benefits to restore and protect their oral health. It focuses on economic development drivers such as improving the health and stability of the workforce, reducing the cost of doing business, and over time promises positive impact on related measures of growth, especially those related to workforce development and employer health care costs.

The project scope includes exploration of employers’ perceptions about the importance and value of improved oral health; factors driving interest in SmilePartners sponsorship among employers are unable to provide dental insurance; indicators of greatest value to employers to assess return on investment for sponsorship costs; options for engaging other stakeholders, such as hospitals and health systems, in sharing the costs of the intervention delivery; the appropriate scale and research design for a larger demonstration to test the proof of concept/prototype that will be developed during the project. The focus will initially be on identifying interested employers in the MEIF sectors and then will expand to identify interested employers in other sectors as well.