Anchorage Project Access

Dear Colleague,
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Anchorage Project Access Medical & Dental Partnership (APADP). This effort is the collaboration between multiple agencies and was spearheaded by the Alaska Dental Society. This program targets the low-income and uninsured people of Anchorage, the same individuals who willingly stood overnight in long lines to receive basic dental care at Alaska Mission of Mercy. Through the APA Medical & Dental Partnership, many dentists are volunteering to provide care at no charge. When you join this effort, you can be confident the patients who enter into the program are carefully screened, not covered by Medicaid and truly need your help.

This partnership is modeled after a successful Michigan Program with the goal to reduce the number of dental related emergency department visits. The idea is to initially use the Providence Emergency Department as a referral source for the program; like many other emergency departments across the country they are seeing more and more patients show up with dental pain but have no way to deliver definitive treatment. Through this partnership of committed organizations and individuals, a basic dental care safety net has been created.

Besides helping these patients get the help they need, the bi-product of this program will be to reduce Providence Emergency Department dental visits overall. No single provider can address the needs of so many people. Only by joining together, as a community, can we reverse the trend of poor dental care among our most vulnerable population. In turn, your gift to the patient is multiplied in the community as the patient is required to volunteer at local nonprofit organizations in order to earn the care they receive.

By allowing you to customize your participation in a variety of ways, we have focused on letting you participate in a manner that is most comfortable and convenient for you and your office staff. When you agree to see a patient for treatment, they do not become your patient of record. The patient will go to volunteer dentists, like you, on a rotating basis until they are stable with their most basic dental needs. Once stable, the end goal is to connect these patients with a dental home at Anchorage Neighborhood Health Clinic, eliminating future visits to the emergency department. Reading through the information provided on this site will answer most questions you may have.

If you are interested in joining your colleagues and participating in APA Medical & Dental Partnership please print, complete and fax back the Provider Participation Form. If you have any questions please give me a call at 441-6002 or Jane Dial at 743-6650.