A robust oral health workforce is essential for ensuring access to care for people served by Medicaid. However, only 41 percent of U.S. dentists participate in Medicaid/CHIP, even as many states expand dental benefits. Ongoing challenges in Medicaid provider recruitment and retention have led to critical gaps in access to care for members, especially for historically underserved communities.

State Oral Health Improvement Plans (SOHIPs) can serve as a powerful tool for strengthening the oral health workforce by providing a structured, strategic roadmap for states to address gaps and build capacity. More broadly, SOHIPs support statewide efforts to advance oral health across populations by guiding state programs in establishing and measuring progress on priorities and coordinating efforts across sectors and stakeholder groups. While SOHIP content and structure vary by state, they are typically informed by state and local oral health needs assessment data and include an evaluation component to track quality improvement, progress, and outcomes.

This tool shares select examples of SOHIPs from across the U.S., including each state’s priorities, objectives, and strategies for supporting and sustaining a strong oral health workforce. It is designed to support oral health stakeholders (e.g., state oral health programs, coalitions, provider groups) who participate in SOHIP development or who are otherwise impacted by a SOHIP. The resource is a product of the Medicaid Oral Health Workforce Implementation Learning Series, an initiative that is working with Medicaid agencies and their partners in 11 states — Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin — to strengthen the Medicaid oral health workforce. The learning series is led by the Center for Health Care Strategies through support from CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.