. >> o'brien: pediatric dentist frank catalanotto is a faculty member here. >> 1,200 children a year in florida get their dental care under general anesthesia in a hospital. that's an enormous number. >> we are going to do two crowns, four extractions and five fillings. >> o'brien: dr. catalanotto says kids wind up here because florida's medicaid system is broken, thanks to one of the lowest reimbursement rates for dentists in the nation. so there aren't many dentists. >> only ten percent of florida dentists participate in the medicaid program. >> o'brien: wow. >> that's awful. >> o'brien: that's a lot of underserved people. >> so the result is that only 25% of medicaid-eligible children get any kind of dental care. and by any kind of dental care, i mean one visit a year. >> dentistry is, in fact, a business and in order for a dentist to survive, they need to be able to make money. >> o'brien: dr. cesar sabates is a practicing dentist and president of the florida dental association. >> i looked into becoming a medicaid provider because i do believe in giving back. and i noticed that

. >> o'brien: frank catalanotto is a supporter of sarrell and hopes to bring its model to florida. but alabama's traditional dentists are deeply suspicious of sarrell's success. >> i accept medicaid on a very limited basis. in alabama, as a dentist, unless i saw a lot of patients and did a lot of unnecessary work, if i had a medicaid practice, i could not survive on what medicaid will reimburse me for. the second thing with medicaid patients is they have no value in the appointment-- it doesn't cost them whether they come or go-- and so you have a very high degree of failures and no-shows. >> there is no problem with medicaid patients showing. i would put our show rate up against any private practice-- not a medicaid practice, any private practice-- in this country. alabama medicaid is a good partner and alabama medicaid pays enough. i wish the reimbursements were higher, but they're fair. >> o'brien: sarrell's rapid growth was enough of a threat that alabama dentists discussed it at a meeting in january 2010 at this birmingham hotel. >> o'briefrontline and the center for public in