I recently became a Medicaid provider for children's dentistry. 

So you filled out a bunch of forms, right?  You contacted the State of Michigan and asked to apply to be a Medicaid provider?

Ummmm...no.  It's called an "implied contract."  If I'm a premier provider for Delta Dental in Michigan then it's implied that I'll take "Healthy Kids" which is administered by Delta Dental of Michigan. 

Does that mean that I have to take Medicaid for kids in Michigan if I want to keep my Delta Premier status?  Actually, no.  You just have to write to Delta Dental of Michigan to opt out.  However, I take exception to the implied contract.  I'm guessing that most "providers" for the Healthy Kids program don't realize that they are now providers for Medicaid.  I'm pretty sure that most don't realize that they can opt out.

I'll give a little bit of credit to Healthy Kids.  The fee schedule is closer to acceptable than "Medicaid" ever was.  However they require NO co-payment whatsoever which pretty much kills any chance that this low income family will take any responsibility for their own oral health.  They just pay whatever you do at the level of their fee schedule with no action on the part of the patient.  The catch is that they don't allow a lot of treatments that I see are just plain necessary.  The "Healthy Kids" that I've been seeing are adults (19-21 year olds) with bombed out mouths.  They'll cover endo, but they won't cover a PFG crown to restore the tooth.  Am I really going to put a stainless steel crown on a 21 year old's upper premolar? 

There might be some steps in the right direction here, but I really resent the end run.  One day I started seeing "Healthy Kids" patients showing up on my schedule and it took some research to find out that "the Michigan Department of Community Health contracts with Delta Dentalto provide dental benefits to Medicaid-eligible residents under the ageof 21 who live in 61 Michigan counties."

So why not ask Michigan dentists to accept this plan on it's merits alone?  Why the end run?