A new report shows California has made little progress on improving oral health outcomes for children under the state's Medi-Cal program, the Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 17.
Nine notes:
1. A 2016 report from the Little Hoover Commission criticized the state's efforts to provide dental care for low-income children and gave several recommendations for the state to improve accessibility.
2. A follow-up report released this month determined that the state has failed to fully implement its recommendations.
3. The 2016 report found that only 44.5% of children in the Medi-Cal program had a dental visit that year, which led the commission to recommend that the state increase this rate to 66%.
4. The new report found that just 47.6% of children under Medi-Cal had an annual dental visit in 2022, a 3% increase from the 2016 report.
5. The report states that California has fully implemented one recommendation and partially implemented seven of the commission’s eight other recommendations. However, the state said it has fully implemented all of the commission's recommendations.
6. The state said it had previously made significant progress in increasing the percentage of children visiting the dentist each year up until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
7. Some of the other improvements the state said it made include expanding teledentistry use, increasing provider networks and launching an education and outreach campaign for Medi-Cal patients and providers.
8. The state has also increased reimbursement rates and made it easier for providers to enroll in the Medi-Cal program.
9. The percentage of dentists who accept Medi-Cal has increased to 40%, a 34% increase from 2017.