Q&A with Kate Stets of Benevis

Q: Kate, can you tell me about your role at Benevis and how you got here?

What attracted me to Benevis was the mission. Having worked in healthcare for almost two decades, I've seen costs continuously rise, which makes it difficult for providers focused on uninsured and underinsured patients to stay afloat. This leads to access issues for patients, and 

I feel privileged to work for an organization that focuses on supporting the dental needs of disadvantaged families and underserved communities nationwide. Providing high-quality care to these patients within their communities is what wakes me up every morning and excites me to come to work.

Q: You’ve worked in various areas of healthcare, including at the Advisory Board. Why did you choose to move into the dental space?

It’s funny because I’ve worked in several different areas of healthcare—emergency care, anesthesia—but what really got me excited about dental is something a lot of people don’t realize: Many children with tooth pain, because they can't access a dentist quickly, end up in emergency rooms. If you're a parent and your child says, "Mom, I can't sleep because my tooth hurts," but you can’t get into a dentist for weeks, you're forced to go to the ER. 

This drives up healthcare costs and isn't the right setting for dental care. We want to keep kids healthy rather than treat them only after the pain and decay have set in. Benevis focuses on providing preventive care to Medicaid and uninsured populations, which was a key motivator for me to join.

Q: Why is it so hard for folks on Medicaid to find a dentist today?

There are many reasons, but one of the biggest is access. There are a limited number of dentists who participate in Medicaid and CHIP plans. Only about 33% of all dental providers in the U.S. treat even one child covered by Medicaid, and just 18% of dental providers manage a Medicaid population that includes more than 100 child visits a year. In contrast, at Benevis, we serve over a million patient appointments in 13 states, and 82% of those patients are on Medicaid. The challenge is finding dentists with appointments and availability.

Q: Given your organization's focus on serving Medicaid and underserved populations, can you share Benevis' general philosophy toward oral health?

Our mission is to improve dental healthcare in the U.S., which we achieve by improving the lives of our patients through what we call “happy, healthy smiles.” We focus on three core tenets:

1. Expanding access to high-quality dental care – This means ensuring that when a parent needs an appointment for their child, they can get one quickly, and without worrying about the finances because we accept Medicaid.
2. Maintaining clinical and operational excellence – Every patient deserves high-quality care, regardless of who pays for it.‍
3. Supporting diverse teams to serve diverse populations – We want our team members to be role models in their communities and have a servant’s heart in caring for our patients.

Q: How does your team engage with the state and managed care organizations? How do you measure success in these relationships?

We are excited to be vanguards for value-based care agreements in dental, which is still relatively new, especially in the Medicaid space. Value-based care allows us to focus on keeping patients healthy, rather than just treating issues when they arise. Our top priorities are compliance, quality, and access to care.

We are very proud of our clinical audit program, which provides multiple layers of oversight. We have designated compliance officers, a Chief Dental Officer, and a Regional Dental Director who conduct ongoing reviews of treatment charts to ensure compliance with regulatory criteria. We also use independent expert dentists and third-party dental consultants to ensure high-quality care, even for our Medicaid and uninsured patients.

In value-based agreements, we prioritize access to care by offering patients a full range of services—oral surgery, anesthesiology, orthodontics—all in one place, so they don’t need to travel between facilities. And lastly, we focus on outcomes through quality performance incentives that put real dollars behind our promise of quality and access.

Q: What are some of the main pain points your patients face when it comes to Medicaid coverage for dental and orthodontics, especially for children versus adults?

The main challenge, whether we’re talking about children or adults, is that Medicaid reimbursement rates are generally low compared to private payers. This limits the number of dental providers willing to accept Medicaid. I understand why—it’s hard to keep the lights on with love alone. On top of that, Medicaid billing and compliance are administratively burdensome, which increases costs even more.

That said, there is growing support at the state level for preventive dental care, particularly for children. States are starting to invest in rate increases to encourage more providers to take Medicaid, and we’ve seen positive changes. For example, in Louisiana, we recently worked with legislators to pass a law allowing properly licensed dentists to provide office-based general anesthesia, which used to only be available in hospitals. This increases access to care and saves the state money by offering a lower-cost option.

Q: Are there internal programs or tools Benevis uses for patients who are uninsured or underinsured?

Yes, my favorite day every year is Sharing Smiles Day. Every May, we host a free day of care where our leadership team, along with our dentists and staff, volunteer their time to provide free dental care for those in the community who don’t have dental coverage. This year, I volunteered in Arizona, and it was so impactful. We treated a family with five children who had been putting off care due to lack of coverage. Being able to help families across the nation like this is something we’re really proud of, and it speaks to the dedication of our team members who volunteer their time.

Q: How does Benevis think about hiring locally and workforce development, and how does this impact patient engagement?

One of our tenets is hiring diverse teams to serve our diverse patient base, and we are lucky to have strong community ties. Many of our team members were originally patients themselves. For example, we recently highlighted a team member in Jackson, Mississippi, who started as a patient and is now an office manager. Her passion for the medical field led her to apply when Benevis was hiring locally, and her siblings and daughter are still patients. This is what we mean by having a servant’s heart and being role models in the community. Our team members care deeply about helping their neighbors get great care.

Q:  Oral health is often linked to broader health outcomes, especially for specific populations like pregnant women. How is Benevis addressing oral health risks for pregnant and postpartum women?

As a mom of two young children, I didn’t even know about the link between pregnancy and tooth decay until I started at Benevis. It’s crucial for pregnant women to get the right care, both during pregnancy and postpartum. If they receive care postpartum, they’re more likely to engage their children in early dental care as well.

We’re doing more education around this topic and working with states like Texas, where dental homes are helping expectant moms get their preventive care. Virginia and Massachusetts are also leading in this space, and we’re partnering with Head Start programs to help moms and their kids. It’s important to get the message out that dental care for pregnant women is critical for their health and their child’s future dental health.

Q:  How does Benevis think about building relationships with medical providers in local communities to provide more holistic care?

We are always looking for ways to partner with pediatric providers and others to ensure we are holistically serving our patients. We continue to publish white papers and resources like our Benevis Dental Home Playbook, which has been widely adopted and is available in the Harvard Research Library. Dr. Ken Hammer, our head of managed care, is a dentist and plays a key role in liaising with payers and other providers. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for parents to access both medical and dental care for their kids.