Integrated dental management care

In the early 1980s, the Federal Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA) sponsored four Medicare waiver programs nationwide to determine the economic feasibility of providing oral health services to Medicare-eligible, low-income elderly people. One such project spawned a pioneering New York-based dental care management organization, Integrated Dental Management, Inc. (IDM). IDM, as its name implies, integrates dental services in an interdisciplinary program of health care. This paper describes the history, organization, challenges and accomplishments of this unique modality for improving access to oral health care for elderly people. This will be presented in the context of the Surgeon General's report, "Oral Health in America," as the practice of dentistry enters a new century.