Denti-Cal Does Not Work Audit Shows

The affordable dental care program called Denti-Cal was supposed to serve kids from low income families living in California but the state did not manage to control the process and no information is collected to see whether the kids receive the needed services or not. According to the recent audit, started by a California state government organization, more than half of all the kids qualified for the dental program do not get the services.

One of the ways out in this situation is to measure the execution of Denti-Cal if the state really cares how often the kids get dental services. In general, Denti-Cal is a part of the program called Medi-Cal that is supposed to provide affordable dental care to lower-income residents. The results of the report were released in December and lawmakers assigned the Little Hoover Commission to look into the matter and to find the proper solutions of the problem.

The thing is that most of the patients eligible for the services are kids with special needs and once they need dental services, they are usually referred to places that cannot see them.

Moreover, each family needs to pay about $1000 per visit and without Denti-Cal, the services become really unaffordable. Most of the clinics do not accept kids with special needs and the number of those who can serve the kids is getting lower with each year.

Considering the reimbursement rates, they are rather high and make up 30 cents on the dollar. At the same time, a dentist who would like to get engaged in this type of services will need to do a lot of paperwork and additional certification. As a result, a lot of dentists do not want to deal with the services and there are counties that do not have any Denti-Cal options at all. One of the solutions is to increase the state funding to attract more dentists and to make the services more attractive financially.

Photo by Kemberly Groue (https://www.dvidshub.net/image/1834021) [Public domain], undefined