This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Scott Marshall, CEO of Community Smiles Dental.
The dental care provider has locations in Waukesha and Menomonee Falls, where it serves children, low-income families, patients with special needs and others. Marshall discusses the impact of the nonprofit’s work, as well as plans for future growth.
While nonprofit last year saw just under 5,000 patients, Marshall says the need is much greater.
“There are tens of thousands of kids in southeast Wisconsin specifically, and much more than that across the state, who have Medicaid as their insurance,” he said. “Medicaid requires reimbursement to a provider like a doctor or dentist, etcetera, and in Wisconsin that reimbursement number is pretty [low] compared to other states.”
For-profit corporate dentistry or family dentists often “can’t afford to take on these Medicaid patients” as they would be losing money for each one they see, Marshall explained.
“We’re happy to step up and do it, we really do fill that gap here in southeast Wisconsin, and the way we’re able to do it is because as a nonprofit, we fundraise and we make up the difference,” he said.
About half of the patients at the Menomonee Falls clinic have been coming from the Milwaukee area, he noted, prompting plans for further expansion. At the same time, the nonprofit had patients coming from 17 counties around the state.
“That tells a lot about the need, but it also tells a lot about the limitations of the care that’s available to people that have these needs,” he said.
Community Smiles Dental is planning to open another clinic in Milwaukee with 12 operatories, doubling its current capacity for how many patients can be seen. It will be located centrally near bus lines, with plans to open in 2027. The nonprofit is currently targeting an $8 million fundraise to support the effort.
“We need to go where the need is,” Marshall said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
