HSDM Forum Highlights Oral Health, Economics

Gathering focuses on integration of oral and overall health care

All Images: Henry Schein Photography. From left to right: Ronald Burakoff, Stanley Bergman, Carol Raphael, Louis Sullivan, Rakesh Khurana, Matt Manders

Integrating oral health care into overall health care will improve care for those suffering from chronic diseases and reduce costs at the same time.

That was the overarching message at a Harvard School of Dental Medicine health care forum that drew more than 200 participants from Harvard University, major health care companies and insurers to the Joseph Martin Conference Center on Oct. 15 and 16.

The two-day forum, entitled, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Economic Imperative of Oral Health,” featured more than 15 speakers, including former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan.

Louis SullivanSullivan shared historical perspectives on changes in oral health as society becomes more diverse and people are now living longer, saying, "Care must be delivered in new ways and in new places."

The idea that health care and dental care should be integrated was echoed by Clayton Christensen, the Harvard Business School Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, whose presentation closed the event.

The economic benefits of integrated health and dental care were covered in Christensen’s presentation, in which he said “the reason why health care is complicated and expensive and not accessible,” is because the pricing of individual services does not work.

“You have to put the pricing inside the system,” Christensen said.

One might receive a blood test at a certain price, he said, which would then be reimbursed, but he said the price is based on seemingly arbitrary values. To Christensen, the actual value of such a test that improves an individual’s health “might be infinite.”Clayton Christensen

He predicted that within five or 10 years, there will be no independent insurance in health care, and all costs will be carried by corporations that also provide the services.

Christensen also discussed what he called arbitrary boundaries in health care that reside between oral health and bodily health—which many speakers at the forum said were very closely related.

Forum panelists also discussed how too few dental providers are black and Latino, as well as the need to work amongst the underserved in rural communities.

Discussion also centered on the impact of an aging population on dental health care providers.

“Twenty five percent of Americans 65 and over have lost all of their teeth … For many of our members, who need dental care, they cannot afford it,” said Carol Raphael, Board Chair, AARP, Inc.

Other panelists addressed research showing how improved oral health leads to better overall physical health, and ways to reduce health care costs by possibly bundling health care and dental care benefits together.