CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The state of New Hampshire has agreed to work harder and spend more money to help low-income families get regular dental care.

The state and the plaintiffs in a 4-year-old class action suit announced a settlement on Friday requiring the state to spend $1.2 million in 2004 and in 2005 on improving dental care for Medicaid clients.

The suit had charged that the state was not doing enough to help Medicaid clients get dental appointments.

As evidence, the plaintiffs’ lawyers pointed to state statistics showing that only 37 percent of the state’s nearly 60,000 children on Medicaid saw a dentist in a recent year. Federal rules require children on Medicaid to be able to see a dentist every six months.

The suit also cited a Manchester survey that showed 97 percent of the city’s dentists did not accept new Medicaid patients. Medicaid does not pay dentists as much as private insurance companies.

The state argued it was complying with federal rules and that making dental appointments was partly the parents’ responsibility.

A federal judge will decide in December whether to accept the settlement.

The agreement requires the Department of Health and Human Services to use its best efforts to make sure that Medicaid clients younger than 21 receive dental appointments near their homes and within 90 days of asking the department for help. The department also will help with transportation to appointments.

The state already has increased Medicaid dental reimbursement rates.

The suit started in 1999 when Cassandra Hawkins sued the department, saying it was nearly impossible to find a dentist to treat her then-6-year-old son. The suit was later certified as a class-action suit on behalf of about 50,000 New Hampshire Medicaid clients under 21.

AP-ES-10-24-03 1229EDT