National Oral Health Plan 2015–2024: performance monitoring report

Proportion of children accessing oral health care through a Government funded oral health program

Numerator
Total number of children (aged 2–17 years) accessing oral health care over the two year reporting period through a Government funded oral health program (State/Territory or Commonwealth)

Denominator
Total number of children in the population (aged 2–17 years)

High

Public dental
State/territory public dental service data for children accessing public dental services and child eligibility criteria

Services Australia
Data on the number of children claimed through Medicare under the CDBS

ABS
Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated resident population data as at 30 June for respective report period (for children aged 2–17 years)

Age group
Includes all children aged 2 to 17 years inclusive who were provided care within the reporting period. Age is calculated from the date of birth in years (rounded down) as at the date of care provision. Child is counted if age at the time of care is between 2–17 years inclusive within the two year reporting period.

State/ Territory & NPA Funded Public Oral Health Care Access
Includes all children who were provided oral health care within the two year reporting period through public oral health services funded through the State/Territory and/or the NPA excluding children where part or all of the care has been funded through the CDBS. Oral health care includes:
(a) Any services provided through public dental clinics
(b) Any services provided through outreach (eg: preventive, screening) programs
(c) Services under State/Territory funded voucher schemes provided through the private sector
A child is only counted once in the reporting period if access to the service occurred on multiple occasions or through more than one clinic.

Commonwealth Funded Oral Health Care Access
Represents the number of children funded through Medicare under the CDBS within the two year reporting period. Care includes eligible CDBS services provided through public or private dental services. A child is only counted once in the reporting period no matter how many funded claims are made.

Total Child Oral Health Care Access
Equals the sum of the total number of children accessing:
State/Territory/NPA funded public oral health services
+
Commonwealth funded (public or private) oral health care
Noted limitation - Double counting cannot be eliminated for the same child that has been provided with State/Territory/NPA funded care only through public oral health services and CDBS through private practice.

CDBS public oral health data
Children in public oral health service data where part or all of care has been funded through the CDBS are to be excluded from total child access data (children will be captured in Medicare data). However, the number of children funded through the CDBS and provided care through public oral health services is to be separately included in the public oral health data for this KPI to measure CDBS access through public oral health services. This represents children with one or more CDBS (88xxx) items recorded within the reporting period (recognising these children may have also had care funded under State/Territory/NPA funding).

Other funded public oral health care access
Children provided care through public dental services entirely self-funded (e.g. under private practice arrangements) or entirely funded through other non-State/Territory/Commonwealth sources are to be excluded