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The Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) released their report Improving Access to Dental Services for Individual with Developmental Disabilities last month. Some of the key findings in the report include:
Nearly 8 in 10 Regional Center clients pay for dental services through Denti-Cal
The vast majority of Denti-Cal providers are not set up to serve Regional Center clients, especially clients with severe behavioral or physical limitations
Only 22% of Regional Center clients enrolled in Denti-Cal received even 1 dental service in each of the following years 2014, 2015 and 2016
Only 20 % of the state’s dentists participate in Denti-Cal
Recommendations from the LAO include among other things:
Increasing the number of dental coordinators in the Regional Centers
Authorizing a pilot program that would provide supplemental payments to Denti-Cal providers who have undergone training to treat Regional Center clients
Authorize behavior management benefit for Regional Center clients
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the LAO for their work on this report. Lack of access to dental care is a serious and significant health issue for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The report is going be very instrumental is advocating for the dental needs of people with I/DD. To read the report visit https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3884