Fixing Denti-Cal

Fixing Denti-Cal REPORT #230, April 2016 LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION DEDICATED TO PROMOTING ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY IN CALIFORNIA STATE GOVERNMENT To Promote Economy and Efficiency Little Hoover Commission The Little Hoover Commission, formally known as the Milton Marks “Little Hoover” Commission on California State Government Pedro Nava Organization and Economy, is an independent state oversight agency. Chairman David A. Schwarz By statute, the Commission is a bipartisan board composed of five Vice Chairman public members appointed by the governor, four public members Scott Barnett appointed by the Legislature, two senators and two assemblymembers. David Beier In creating the Commission in 1962, the Legislature declared its p urpose: Anthony Cannella Senator ...to secure assistance for the Governor and itself in promoting economy, Jack Flanigan* efficiency and improved services in the transaction of the public business Loren Kaye in the various d epartments, agencies and instrumentalities of the executive Chad Mayes branch of the state government, and in making the operation of all state Assemblymember departments, agencies and instrumentalities, and all expenditures of Don Perata public funds, more directly responsive to the wishes of the people as expressed by their elected representatives... Sebastian Ridley-Thomas Assemblymember The Commission fulfills this charge by listening to the public, Richard Roth Senator consulting with the experts and conferring with the wise. In the course of its investigations, the Commission typically empanels advisory Jonathan Shapiro committees, c onducts public hearings and visits government operations *Recused from study in action. Former Commissioners Who Served During the Study Its conclusions are submitted to the Governor and the Legislature for Sumi Sousa their consideration. Recommendations often take the form of l egislation, which the Commission supports through the legislative process. Commission Staff Carole D’Elia Executive Director Jim Wasserman Contacting the Commission Deputy Executive Director All correspondence should be addressed to the Commission Office: Matthew Gagnon Research Analyst Little Hoover Commission 925 L Street, Suite 805, Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 445-2125 littlehoover@lhc.ca.gov This report is available from the Commission’s website at www.lhc.ca.gov. Letter from the Chair Letter from the Chair April 1, 2016 The Honorable Kevin de León The Honorable Jean Fuller President pro Tempore of the Senate Senate Minority Leader and members of the Senate The Honorable Anthony Rendon The Honorable Chad Mayes Speaker of the Assembly Assembly Minority Leader and members of the Assembly Dear Governor and Members of the Legislature: A silent, hidden epidemic of tooth decay and disease is ravaging California, endangering the overall health of millions of residents and overpowering the state administrative machinery assigned to contain it. Enduring the worst of this epidemic and its larger associations with pregnancy risks, diabetes and respiratory and heart disease is a large, growing population with limited means – a third of the state’s population and half of its children – that desperately needs government-provided healthcare that works. Yet Denti-Cal, California’s Medicaid dental program, is widely viewed, historically, and currently, as broken, bureaucratically rigid and unable to deliver the quality of dental care most other Californians enjoy. With dreadful reimbursement rates for dentists and slow, outdated paper-based administrative and billing processes that compare poorly with those of commercial insurers, Denti-Cal has thoroughly alienated its partners in the dental profession. Most California dentists want nothing to do with Denti-Cal and consequently, more than 13 million people eligible for coverage have few places to use their benefits. Eleven of California’s 58 counties have no Denti-Cal providers at all or no providers willing to accept new patients covered by Denti- Cal, states a 2014 report by the California State Auditor. Only about half of Denti-Cal-eligible children see a dentist annually, in comparison to two-thirds of commercially-insured children. This breakdown of professional relationships between state government and the dental community has sentenced millions of Californians to difficult, sometimes impossible, searches for nearby dental care. Many who do find dentists face complicated cross-town bus trips with children or lengthy rural drives in undependable cars. Hit especially hard are parents of special-needs children who find few dentists or dental surgeons willing to see their children. The system is so troubled that the director of a Long Beach children’s clinic asked the Commission to consider a “nuclear option” that abolishes the Denti-Cal bureaucracy entirely – and gives families smart cards loaded annually with $500 to take to any dentist in California. Denti-Cal is so unsatisfying that civil rights groups have filed a civil rights complaint with the federal government alleging that the Medi-Cal health care delivery system, which includes Denti-Cal, effectively discriminates against 7.3 million California Latinos by providing them a separate, unequal level of care in comparison with others. Little Hoover Commission | 1 Fixing Denti-Cal It would be easy to simply blame administrative staff within the Department of Health Care Services and its Denti-Cal division, but blame goes so much deeper. Successive legislatures and administrations have underfunded the Denti-Cal program and slashed reimbursement rates for dental providers to national lows. The state has historically lacked any strategy to prevent dental disease among its neediest populations. Major funders have apparently given up in the face of a problem that appears intractable. Californians, collectively, have turned a blind eye to containing a health emergency that is entirely preventable, yet sends too many people to expensive emergency rooms and costs school districts and employers millions of dollars in absences. Fortunately, a few haven’t given up. The Commission found reason for hope in an emerging consensus for fixing Denti-Cal’s shortcomings among children’s advocates, dental colleges, professional associations and the state itself. The Commission learned about novel, promising approaches in Alameda and Amador counties, and in Washington State, which could be rolled out statewide in California. It heard about successful pilot programs that take digital cameras, laptop computers and hand-held X-ray machines into community settings such as schools, clinics and neighborhood centers instead of waiting for people to come to a dentist’s office. None of these involve big, costly, across-the-board hikes in reimbursement rates to attract a few more Denti- Cal providers. Instead, they offer smaller targeted incentives to boost preventative care, and more importantly, reorient Denti-Cal toward prevention. Presently, Denti-Cal spends just 14 percent of its $1.3 billion budget on the preventative checkups that people with commercial insurance take for granted. The other 86 percent pays dentists to drill, fill, cap and extract – a formula that dooms Denti-Cal to a state of constant emergency and perennially being hauled before the Legislature to explain its inability to keep up with demand. After concluding its study process in November 2015, the Commission learned the federal and state governments have jointly negotiated a five-year $740 million targeted incentive program to spur more dentists to offer preventative care to children. The Commission also learned of the scheduled June 2016 release of a 10-year prevention-focused state oral health plan by the Department of Public Health’s new state dental director. The Commission believes both initiatives represent a significant opportunity for California to do better by the population it is supposed to help. Digging out of this hole will take more than fixing Denti-Cal, although the state bears much responsibility to fix its antiquated processes and function more like commercial dental insurers. It will require a significant effort among funders, private and non-profit organizations, universities, the state and local governments, as well as the Governor and Legislature, to build a more coordinated, comprehensive system of preventative care. The recent expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is steering millions more beneficiaries to a Denti- Cal program that is already dysfunctional. Denti-Cal’s problems have festered for years without significant improvement. That must end. The Commission respectfully submits these findings and recommendations and stands prepared to help you take on this challenge. Sincerely, Pedro Nava Chair, Little Hoover Commission 2 | www.lhc.ca.gov Contents Contents 5 Executive Summary California is Not Alone............................................................................................................ 6 A Path to Action: Begin with a Forceful Utilization Target ..................................................... 7 Key Short-Term Goals to Meet Utiilization Target .................................................................. 8 Key Long-Term Goals to Meet Utiilization Target ................................................................... 9 12 A Restart for Denti-Cal A Silent Epidemic Througout California ................................................................................. 14 Origins of the Commission’s Denti-Cal Study ......................................................................... 16 An Introduction to Denti-Cal .................................................................................................. 17 Dental Disease in California: Prevalance and Consequences ................................................. 20 California’s Reimbursement Rates are Among the Lowest in the Nation .............................. 22 Low Rates Incentivize Questionable Behavior, Raise Health Care Costs ................................ 24 Beyond Rates: Dentists Say Denti-Cal is “Broken” and “Dysfunctional .................................. 25 The State Should Set a Bold Target and Get Started .............................................................. 27 A Path to Action: Begin with a Forceful Utilization Target ..................................................... 27 29 A Customer-Centered Upgrade Billing and Administrative Issues ........................................................................................... 29 Overhaul an Adversarial Culture and Sweep Away Outdated Rules ...................................... 36 A Denti-Cal Advisory Board .................................................................................................... 38 Customer-Centered Targets for Denti-Cal .............................................................................. 39 Key Short-Term Goals to Meet Utiilization Target .................................................................. 39 42 A New Direction Toward Prevention Promising: The Department’s New Five-Year Experiment in Preventative Care ..................... 43 Also Promising: A New Prevention-Focused Oral Health Plan ............................................... 45 Targeted Reimbursement Hikes I: Washington’s Access to Baby and Child Dentistry Program .................................................................................................................................. 46 Targeted Reimbursement Hikes II: Alameda County’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Teeth ............... 49 The Emergence of Teledentistry ............................................................................................. 51 Scrapping What Doesn’t Work and Starting Over: The Texas Experiment ............................. 53 Conclusion and Recommendations: Ideas for the Long Run .................................................. 55 Key Long-Term Goals to Meet Utiilization Target ................................................................... 56 The Commission’s Study Process ........................................................................................... 58 60 Appendices 60 Public Hearing Witnesses ....................................................................................................... 61 Notes Little Hoover Commission | 3 Fixing Denti-Cal 4 | www.lhc.ca.gov Executive Summary Executive Summary Among government programs labeled by participants more importantly, prevent a worsening epidemic of oral and beneficiaries as broken, dysfunctional or an distress in a sizeable amount of the state’s population. outright mess, few have achieved the notoriety of California, through the Department of Health Care Denti-Cal, California’s Medicaid dental program. A quiet Services, essentially runs a program that is unable bureaucratic backwater that has long resisted outside to attract enough dentists, unable to provide most efforts at reform, Denti-Cal consistently falls short in beneficiaries access to care and seemingly, unable to caring for one-third of the state’s 39 million residents and change its ways. half of its children. The Commission during a study of this $1.3 billion For these 13 million or more Californians of modest or state and federal program often heard that Denti-Cal little means, Denti-Cal is the only ticket to dental care is “broken,” that it is beyond fixing and needs to be outside of an emergency room. Yet by many accounts abolished and rebuilt from scratch. Many program provided to the Commission during a seven-month participants seem stuck in cultures of mutual antagonism: review, its thicket of rules and outdated processes is dental providers against the state bureaucracy, the baffling, frustrating and ultimately, often harmful to bureaucracy against providers it suspects of fraud, and beneficiaries. The statistics portray a vicious circle of beneficiaries against both for their inability to deliver dysfunction. Most California dentists don’t participate care. This dysfunction has prevailed for years, finally in Denti-Cal due to its low reimbursement rates and exploding into the open with a searing December administrative obstructions. And fewer than half of 2014 audit report on the Denti-Cal program and the people eligible for benefits use them in any given year subsequent April 2015 request for the Little Hoover because there are so few dentists who will see them. Commission to conduct its own review. Millions of Californians, consequently, are going through The Commission, which held two hearings in September life with rotting or missing teeth, debilitating pain, poor and November, 2015, learned about difficulties that oral health habits and no preventative care. millions of people encounter searching for dentists The situation has grown so serious that a coalition of civil who accept new Denti-Cal patients or office hours rights groups in December 2015 filed an administrative that accommodate their work schedules. At least five civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health counties have no Denti-Cal providers at all and many and Human Services, alleging that Medi-Cal and Denti- other counties have no providers who accept new Denti- Cal are a separate and unequal system of California Cal patients. The special needs and developmentally- healthcare that “effectively deny” full benefits to more disabled population is especially hard hit and unable than seven million Latino enrollees. to find providers. The Commission learned that this widespread inability to get care has translated to The impacts of this poorly performing program ripple excessive demand for emergency care and dental surgery, outward with expensive emergency room visits, missed which DHCS and health insurers are now limiting and school days and lost job opportunities, all representing stirring up even more antagonism among providers and lifetime or even multi-generational social costs for the beneficiaries. state. Denti-Cal at best is getting by in the midst of its overwhelming mission. At worst, it fails to curb, and Overall, it appears that the current Denti-Cal system Little Hoover Commission | 5 Fixing Denti-Cal creates high levels of havoc in the lives of people it is supposed to help. The entire system needs a thorough reorientation to preventative care and earlier “There’s a lack of access to care for children intervention. Most of all, a state that has so long like mine. There’s a very limited number dawdled and promised reforms while people suffer must of dental providers as well as a lack of get the ball rolling in a new direction. Commission Chair facilities that are willing to provide the Pedro Nava captured the Commission’s sentiment in level of care that he needs. He has to have concluding the November 19, 2015, hearing. He said, an anesthesiologist there. We’ve been very “The testimony has been dramatic. There’s no question fortunate to have Sutter in our community, that there is a disconnect between the issue of the State but the funding makes it very difficult for of California and what’s in the best interest of the patient. their bottom line to have it open enough to I don’t know how you can make an argument that is any provide for our children and so they have different.” to limit the access. As the rules are now he is only provided a cleaning, a scaling and root planing, deep cleaning every two years according to the authorization process. But California is not Alone when he is in pain – and he always cannot tell There is no question that running a statewide dental me – he tells me with his behavior by holding program involving 13 million or more people is difficult toys up close to his face that vibrate and make – and California is hardly alone. It is difficult across the noise, and by rocking constantly to say this entire nation where Medicaid rates paid to dentists run is hurting. And you look in his mouth and his well behind commercial rates and more people than gums are red and he has lots of scaling that ever are competing for a limited number of dentists. needs to be done, but the rules say differently. Nationally, too, many people with Medicaid dental And so it makes it very difficult.” coverage are not using it. Donnell Kenworthy of West Sacramento, mother of a special needs son, addressing the Commission in To outsiders peering in, the Denti-Cal program can November 2015. appear almost impervious to reform due to being jointly run and funded by two large and sometimes seemingly incomprehensible bureaucracies, the state’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Fortunately the Commission learned of strong consensus among key interest groups for new directions. Most of these involve expanding preventative care in a system that allocates 86 percent of its funding to drill, fill, cap, extract and perform root canals. The Commission takes great encouragement from this consensus. It also takes encouragement from major initiatives to spur more preventative care and higher percentages of beneficiaries making annual visits to a dentist. The Department of Health Care Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid jointly announced in December 2015 a five- (From left: Donnell and D.J. Kenworthy, Sam and Chris Hickey) year $740 million initiative to provide targeted financial incentives to California dentists to treat more Denti-Cal patients and develop preventative approaches to care. 6 | www.lhc.ca.gov Executive Summary It is more than a year later. Californians need to get it done. The time for excuses ran out a decade ago. “Studies of Medicaid-insured populations Following a seven-month review, the Little Hoover have found that negative experiences with Commission offers these 11 recommendations and their the dental care system discouraged many key implementation partners as a way forward. caregivers from obtaining dental services for their Medicaid-insured children. Searching for providers, arranging an appointment where choices were severely limited, and finding A Path to Action: Begin With a Forceful transportation left caregivers describing Utilization Target themselves as discouraged and exhausted. Caregivers who successfully negotiated Recommendation 1: the Legislature should set a these barriers felt that they encountered target of 66 percent of children with additional barriers in the dental care setting, Denti-Cal coverage making annual dental visits. including long waiting times and judgmental, Additionally, the Legislature should: disrespectful, and discriminatory behavior from staff and providers because of their race  Conduct oversight hearings to assess progress and public assistance status. Little of this or lack of movement on all initiatives designed fact is ever highlighted in Denti-Cal-related to reach this target, and particularly on studies.” implementation of the five-year $740 million Conrado E. Bárzaga, M.D. Executive Director, Center Denti-Cal targeted incentive plan to increase for Oral Health. January 2016. children’s preventative dental visits.  Ensure the state dental director has adequate Simultaneously, California’s new state dental director is authority to see that the Denti-cal targeted crafting a 10-year statewide Oral Health Plan focused incentive program aligns with the 2016 oral on a great expansion of preventative care, especially for health plan. children. Yet in the meantime, countless thousands of Californians The Legislature should declare its intent that annual can’t find a nearby dentist who will see them or their Denti-Cal utilization rates among children in California children. climb well into the 60 percent range, as is the case in The Little Hoover Commission recognizes that approximately 20 percent of U.S. states. A specific target Department of Health Care Services Director Jennifer of two-thirds of children using their benefits annually, Kent and Denti-Cal Director Alani Jackson have been in comparable to children with commercial insurance, will their new posts for a year and express their intentions gradually stimulate and accelerate the necessary range to make the program more effective. They have their of small and larger solutions by DHCS and its partners to work cut out, reforming within the massive Medi-Cal get there. The Department of Health Care Services and bureaucracy a small Denti-Cal division that appears by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently all accounts to have ossified over years and become announced an experimental five-year incentive plan to stuck in its ways. During a heated March 27, 2015, joint focus on prevention and increase children’s annual dental legislative hearing on Denti-Cal’s shortcomings, Director visits by 10 percentage points. However, it is uncertain Kent, on the job only a few weeks, assured lawmakers that the plan will produce results to meet that goal. who had expressed blistering criticisms of the program, Fortunately, the state’s new Oral Health Plan being “We will get it done.” produced by State Dental Director Jayanth Kumar, DDS, within the California Department of Public Health and Little Hoover Commission | 7 Fixing Denti-Cal scheduled for release in June 2016, also aims toward a 10-year increase in the numbers of children making  The department should reassess its policies an annual dental visit. While the Commission has using metrics that consider foremost the strong hopes for these two plans, the Legislature, in highest impacts on beneficiaries and their addition to continuing strict performance oversight of needs rather than the lowest behavior of a few the DHCS Denti-Cal program in general, should oversee providers. both plans as they work in tandem and closely monitor  The department should consult with an their progress or lack thereof. The Legislature and evidence-based advisory board during this Administration also should ensure that the state dental reassessment. director has adequate authority to align the plans and publicly recommend and make necessary course changes to reach an improved utilization rate. California’s entire The Department of Health Care Services has made dental health care bureaucracy should work with its small, tentative moves toward easing concerns of dental partners in the private, public and non-profit sector providers over the need to routinely mail in X-rays with toward a target of 66% utilization rates among children. their claims for reimbursement. But questions remain about what procedures should require preauthorization from Denti-Cal before being conducted. Hearing witnesses told the Commission that commercial Key Short-Term Goals to Meet Utilization insurers do not routinely require X-rays or authorization Target in advance for routine dental work such as crowns, Recommendation 2: the Department of Health root canals and periodontal (gum) treatment. The Care Services should simplify the denti-cal Commission heard anecdotally that fraud rates are no provider enrollment forms and put them online different for Denti-Cal than commercial insurance, and in 2017. accordingly, recommends a high-level department review of its preauthorization policies. The department’s review, Department of Health Care Services officials say they guided by an evidence-based advisory body, should focus are in final review of plans to refine and shorten the foremost on the needs of beneficiaries rather than the Denti-Cal enrollment form from 34 pages to 10. The current near-singular focus on fraud. Commission commends this action and urges the Legislature to oversee its progress and keep it moving Recommendation 4: the Department of Health forward through the process of feedback from dental Care Services should implement a customer- providers and department partners. The Commission focused program to improve relationships with also recommends that the state go further and facilitate its providers. Denti-Cal enrollment via an online application far sooner The Department of Health Care Services admittedly than the department’s current estimated timetable of has a very difficult job to implement Denti-Cal for a two to three years. Waiting up to three years to bring growing population while paying low reimbursement the department’s enrollment process up to the online rates dictated by the Legislature. But for the good of standards of commercial insurers will further bewilder the Californians it serves, it simply must develop better a dental provider community that publicly called on day-to-day relationships with dental providers. The the department to do online enrollment in 2008. The department should initiate customer-service-focused Commission recommends that the Legislature and processes in 2016 to develop a stronger “partner Governor see that it is done in 2017. mentality” and tone down the antagonism that seems to Recommendation 3: the Department of Health have become quite routine between it and providers and Care Services should overhaul the process of others. treatment authorization requests. 8 | www.lhc.ca.gov Executive Summary Recommendation 5: the Department of on the best evidence and science and not merely on cost. Health Care Services should purge outdated This would be especially helpful to minimize the continual regulations. strife, confusion and even alleged harm to beneficiaries, including special needs populations, that the Commission  The department should appoint a small heard about repeatedly in public comment during its two number of staffers to spend eight to 10 weeks hearings. during 2016 to review rules and clear out Recommendation 7: the Legislature and needless regulatory clutter. Governor should fund a statewide expansion of  The Legislature should assess department teledentistry and the virtual dental home. progress through an oversight hearing or  The Legislature should pass and the Governor through budget hearings. should sign AB 648 (Low). Californians have pioneered a simple technological Department of Health Care Services partners, including solution – teledentistry – to better connect dentists the California Dental Association, say many Denti-Cal and people in the neighborhoods where they live. The rules were designed to combat particular episodes of concept of a dental assistant with a laptop, digital camera fraud and have outlived themselves. While originally and hand-held X-ray machine doing dental care under the well-intended, some now have a larger negative impact supervision of a distant dentist who can review medical of discouraging dental provider participation due to their histories and X-rays from another computer and prescribe impediments. Denti-Cal beneficiaries suffer the most treatment should play a significant new role within the harm when dentists balk at providing them care due to Denti-Cal system. In 2015, the Legislature considered outdated and frustrating department rules. AB 648 (Low) to allocate $3 million to scale up the Recommendation 6: the Legislature and Virtual Dental Home concept statewide in the wake of a Governor should enact and sign legislation in successful pilot demonstration project. The bill, currently 2016 to create an evidence-based advisory group stalled short of a full Senate vote, should be passed and for the Denti-Cal program. forwarded to the Governor for signing.  The Governor and Legislature should appoint dental experts in early 2017 to guide Key Long-Term Goals to Meet Utilization development of Denti-Cal priorities and oversee policy decisions. Target  The Department of Health Care Services should Recommendation 8: state government, funders begin to consult with the Denti-Cal advisory and non-profits should lead a sustained board in early 2017. statewide “game changer” to reorient the oral health care system for Denti-Cal beneficiaries toward preventative care. The Department of Health Care Services has much work  A coalition of public, private and non-profit to do retool its Denti-Cal program to win over more organizations and funders, such as the providers and provide greater access to dental care California Healthcare Foundation, California statewide. Denti-Cal should be guided by an Endowment, California Dental Association, evidence-based advisory group, which consists of the California First 5 Commission and its county state dental director and expert specialists who can weigh commissions, among others, should powerfully in on proposed decisions and make sure they are based Little Hoover Commission | 9 Fixing Denti-Cal address the need for a more coordinated,  The Department of Health Care Services and comprehensive statewide system of the Legislature should actively encourage and preventative care. help establish pilot projects based on these concepts with the potential of expanding them  Others beyond state government, including statewide. universities, medical societies and foundations should convene a symposium to discuss  The Legislature should assess department and and plan a way forward, then make it their pilot project progress. continuing responsibility to help fund and sustain a permanent emphasis on preventative care. A new federal and state initiative to fund targeted incentives for dentists who care for Denti-Cal-eligible  Funders, celebrities, communicators, advocates children provides great opportunity to expand and media firms should participate in a major preventative care to children five and under through statewide messaging campaign to educate programs with demonstrated successes in Alameda families and children about habits for healthy County and Washington State. With $185 million teeth. available in a federal-state fund for preventative dental care pilot projects during the next five years, the Access to Baby and Child Dentistry and Healthy Kids Healthy Teeth concept is ripe for expansion and testing beyond The rapid increase of Denti-Cal beneficiaries in recent Alameda County. A pilot project, if successful, could years combined with some of the nation’s lowest demonstrate anew the ability of incentives to motivate reimbursement rates for participating dentists has left dentists’ participation, especially when backed with the Denti-Cal program increasingly unable to contend training and assistance for dentists, and an extensive with an overload of dental disease. With only 14 percent case management system that conducts outreach at the of its annual budget allocated to prevention, Denti-Cal is community level to get eligible patients appointments likewise unable to stem the rising damage of poor dental with dentists and keep them. A pilot program will health among its eligible population. The growing oral ideally feature networks of private, non-profit and public health crisis among Californians who lack commercial partners such as dental associations, medical schools, dental insurance coverage is a larger responsibility foundations and health agencies to fund and maintain than the state’s alone. A large, powerful coalition will be necessary to steer Denti-Cal funding toward these comprehensive outreach and case management preventative care, and especially recognize the power efforts. of case management in connecting a large vulnerable Recommendation 10: the Department of Health population to dentists and making sure people show up Care Services and California counties should for appointments. Two powerful initiatives within the steer more Denti-Cal-eligible patients into Department of Health Care Services and Department of Public Health are launching momentum in a preventative Federally Qualified Health Centers with capacity direction. Others beyond state government must build to see them. upon it and sustain this forward direction. Recommendation 9: the Legislature and  The Department of Health Care Services should Department of Health Care Services should include contact information for Federally expand the concepts of Washington State’s Qualified Health Centers on its referral lists of Access to Baby and Child Dentistry program and dentists. Alameda County’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Teeth program to more regions of California. 10 | www.lhc.ca.gov Executive Summary Recommendation 11: medical societies and  Counties should train eligibility workers to non-profit organizations should recruit more advise use of Federally Qualified Health pediatricians to provide preventative dental Centers for dental care where appropriate. checkups during well-child visits.  Federally Qualified Health Centers with  The California chapters of the American high demand for dental services and limited Academy of Pediatrics should lead in capacity should expand use of teledentistry encouraging its members to perform options to provide preventative care in preventative dental exams and apply fluoride community locations and free up capacity for varnish to Denti-Cal-eligible children. more intensive dental care in their offices and clinics.  County First 5 Commissions statewide should work to reinforce the message locally with  Foundations and medical societies should pediatricians and primary care doctors. consider funding targeted messaging or advertising campaigns to raise awareness  Senator and pediatrician Richard Pan should that Denti-Cal benefits can be used at nearby write to pediatricians statewide stressing the Federally Qualified Health Centers. importance and benefits of this practice. California’s more than 1,000 Federally Qualified Health Representatives of Amador County have provided Centers (FQHC) have integrated preventative care into California a model that offers basic preventative dental their daily appointments in ways that largely do not occur care to children in rural counties that have few or no in private dentist offices. Their reimbursement stream Denti-Cal providers. With a small start-up grant from incentivizes FQHCs to prioritize low-cost preventative Sutter Medical Group, the county established a program visits to minimize the high expenses and potential to recruit and train pediatricians to do dental exams, financial losses of restorative care. The incentive for apply fluoride treatment as part of well-child visits and private dentists is just the opposite, often prioritizing bill Medi-Cal for reimbursement. This program is a high-cost restorative care to make worthwhile the critical piece of the safety net in Amador County, where low reimbursement rates paid by Denti-Cal. Given a visit to a dental office that accepts Denti-Cal might be that the federal government provides much higher as much as 60 miles away. Pediatricians did more than reimbursement to dentists at FQHCs and pays nearly 1,000 flouride treatments in the first eight months of the entire cost of these reimbursements, the state and the program in 2015, and serve as an example to other its partners alike would be wise to encourage the most counties in similar straits. A major statewide initiative on people possible to receive care at a FQHC. Most FQHCs preventative care for children requires small programs are located in neighborhoods that private dentists tend and pediatricians everywhere to do what can be done. In to avoid, but many people who live near one don’t know 2015 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advised that they provide dental care. The California Primary pediatricians to add fluoride varnish to their list of tasks Care Association has invested in a CaliforniaHealthPlus during well-child visits from the age of six months to age branding campaign to promote FQHC services, including five. Just as the state needs more initiatives like those in dental, but lacks funds for the necessary scale of Amador County, more pediatricians statewide need to statewide advertising. Funders and medical societies add this small preventative task to their well-child visits should consider ways to help. These federal facilities for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. should become an even stronger part of the dental care safety net in California. Little Hoover Commission | 11 Fixing Denti-Cal A Restart for Denti-Cal For millions of Californians going to the dentist is an easy, familiar routine. They have insurance through “Dental care consistently ranks to the public as their employers, manageable co-pays and seldom a the most important type of health care after problem finding a good neighborhood dentist. Every medical. Part of the reason is we are a society six months the dentist’s office calls, emails or texts with that judges people on their appearance. Think a reminder of scheduled preventative checkups and about how many comments you hear about cleanings, and most patients depart their appointments people, how their teeth look, especially if they with a commercially-sponsored toothpaste, brush and have missing teeth. We equate appearance floss. with intelligence and respect. Do not underestimate the impact this has on Two-thirds of Californians take all this for granted. self-esteem and their quality of life.” For 13 million or more other Californians of modest or Assemblymember Jim Wood, DDS.1 little means, going to the dentist is an entirely different restorative procedures the same day. Millions of experience, and often a difficult one. They have Californians take this experience, too, for granted. no-cost coverage through Denti-Cal, the state’s Medicaid dental program, but frequently have problems finding This two-dimensional state of oral health care in a neighborhood dentist who will take them. An office California – and the shortcomings of the state’s Medicaid that does accept Denti-Cal may be miles away and offer dental program and other institutional systems in appointment hours inconvenient for their inflexible, addressing it – is an unfair and needless condition in daytime work schedules, require a challenging family trip the lives of one-third of Californians and one-half of by bus and no ability to routinely get X-rays and its children. Hard-to-access dental care endangers their overall health, their performance in school and their ability to get ahead. It costs California taxpayers “You have a third of all Californians who have hundreds of millions of avoidable dollars for emergency small children who are stuck in this plan. And room visits, dental surgery and social consequences of the fact that you’re squeezing on one end unemployment and multi-generational poverty. All this of the balloon, as they say, it starts popping became evident to the Commission during a seven-month out the other. If people can’t get in with review of Denti-Cal in 2015 and 2016 – conducted at prevention, they eventually show up for more the request of California lawmakers exasperated by the serious treatments. Now you have cavities program’s long-standing inability to deliver consistently that aren’t treated and you’re putting in a convenient and dependable care. crown. Then they set up in the emergency room with an abscess and now you’re treating First among issues is lack of access to care. Denti-Cal, that. Then they have to have teeth extracted a $1.3 billion state and federal program, designed with and then you’re talking about dentures and on the best of civic intentions to give a hand to people in and on. You start to cause this ball to roll.” unenviable circumstances, appears by most accounts to be unavailable or difficult to use for children and adults Senator Richard Pan. Testifying at September 24, who most need their teeth fixed, pulled or cleaned. The 2015 Commission hearing. scale of this problem varies greatly depending upon 12 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal the source consulted, the time period covered and the 2015 Commission testimony provided by the Children’s methodology used to produce the numbers: Partnership. Perhaps the silver lining to all these numbers is that they have improved since 2000 when  In December 2014, the California State Auditor only 32 percent of Denti-Cal-eligible children in California cited Centers for Medicare & Medicaid data to report that only 44 percent of California’s 5.1 million Denti-Cal-eligible children aged 20 and “In my counties this isn’t under saw a dentist from October 2012 through working. There aren’t enough September 2013. dentists. When they say they’d rather do it for free it’s a serious  In December 2015, the Centers for Medicare & indictment of the program.” Medicaid, in approving the California Medi-Cal 2020 Demonstration, cited a figure of Senator and Commissioner Anthony 37.8 percent of children 20 and under making a Canella dental visit during the calendar year 2014.2  In February 2016, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) stated that 51.8 percent saw a dentist during the year, according to the American of children 20 and under with Denti-Cal fee-for- Dental Association.5 service coverage had a dental visit from October Meanwhile, only 26 percent of eligible California adults 2014 through September 2015.3 with fee-for-service Denti-Cal coverage saw a dentist in 2014, according to February 2016 DHCS data.6 It is “I think it’s fair to say in short that Denti-Cal obvious that millions of working, underemployed and historically has been what the kids say is a ‘hot disabled Californians and members of their families are mess.’ Fair statement?” moving through their lives without receiving the regular dental care for which they are eligible. Senator Holly Mitchell, addressing Department of Health Care Services Director Jennifer Kent at her The reason for this lack of access to care is both January 20, 2016, confirmation hearing before the obvious and simple, the root of the entire problem the Senate Rules Committee. Commission was asked to review: “I would say that the kids are not far off.”  The great majority of California’s 31,640 professionally-affiliated dentists – and a large Director Kent, in response. share of those training to become dentists – Watch video of the exchange here want nothing to do with Denti-Cal.7 Dentists widely shun the program, saying it is easier to provide free charity care to low-income people These variances add somewhat to the confusion about than to work for Denti-Cal reimbursement rates the true nature and magnitude of the problem in that rank among the lowest nationally and California. Perhaps the easiest thing to understand is don’t begin to cover their costs. Dentists also how far all these numbers lag behind the 67 percent of told the Commission the state’s administrative California children with commercial coverage who visited requirements are far more complex and time- the dentist in 2013, according to the American Dental consuming than those of commercial insurance Association.4 Overall, children in rural areas are least plans. They complained that, unlike commercial likely to visit a dentist’s office. Children three and under plans, state dentists consistently second guess are also less likely to see a dentist, with fewer than 25 their professional judgments. Dental billing percent making visits in 2013, according to September specialists, too, chafe over outdated paper- Little Hoover Commission | 13 Fixing Denti-Cal based billing programs long ago abandoned by epidemic of dental decay enveloping California, a public commercial insurers.8 health problem on the scale of diabetes and obesity – and worsening.  In 2013, the American Dental Association (ADA) reported that 29 percent of California dentists “We get 50 referrals a day for severe tooth decay,” said participate in the state’s Medicaid dental program Viveka Rydell, chief executive officer of the nonprofit compared to a national average of 42 percent. PDI Surgery Center in Sonoma County. Denti-Cal-eligible That puts California among the lowest nine states children from 33 counties gravitate toward the center nationally, with participation rates between 20 with its three-month waitlist. She said a typical case is percent and 30 percent.9 a child, three and a half years old, with 10 to 18 cavities. “We have 10 kids in two operating rooms every day,” said Ms. Rydell. “Pediatric dentists have traditionally Plainly, a massive swath of California’s oral health participated in Medicaid dental programs landscape is experiencing profound disorder and the nationally at a higher rate than dentists as state’s signature dental plan for those of lesser incomes a whole and that is no longer the case in – as well as the larger health care infrastructure of California. We have serious concerns that the California - is inadequately addressing the challenge. current generation of pediatric dentists coming The Commission’s study process produced abundant off our training programs look at the Denti-Cal testimony about serious deficiencies within the program, because of the enrollment barriers, state’s Medicaid dental program. Yet it also showed the administrative barriers, because of the a refreshing consensus among experts beyond the low reimbursement rates, because of their Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) on ways high amounts of debt coming out – and these to make improvements in the short and longer term. are people who are dedicated, they’re taking The Commission took great encouragement from this two to three years of additional education to consensus. The Commission also is hopeful, despite become pediatric dentists, they’re taking two a few reservations about the potential effectiveness to three years of additional debt – and they of particular strategies, that a new five-year $740 look at Denti-Cal as irrelevant to their practice. million federal and state initiative will help increase We are losing a generation of pediatric dental preventative dental care to children under 21. Likewise, clinicians and practitioners unless we make it is encouraged by a comprehensive 10-year statewide serious changes to the program now.” oral health plan to be released in June 2016 by the State Dr. Paul Reggiardo, public policy analyst, California of California’s new dental director and its anticipated Society of Pediatric Dentistry. emphasis on preventing dental disease. Both the problem and this developing consensus for solutions will be considered extensively inside this report and form the basis for the Commission’s recommendations to the Governor and Legislature. A Silent Epidemic Throughout California Broadly, the Commission concludes that California’s During its study the Commission heard story after story of Denti-Cal program also must begin a thorough years-long conditions little known in the larger and more prosperous reorientation away from funding simple damage control society of California: little children by the thousands with – what the dental industry calls “drill and fill” – toward mouths full of rotting, ruined teeth, parents who don’t preventative care and intervention at the youngest understand basic preventative care, whole counties with possible age. (Currently, 14 percent of Denti-Cal funding no dentists who accept Denti-Cal. Witnesses, experts goes to preventative care).10 California also needs strong and dental practitioners collectively described a silent comprehensive case management at all levels of the 14 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal public health system to make more people aware of their regular advice from a board of health evidence-focused Denti-Cal benefits, use them and show up for regular experts to guide its decision-making and most important, appointments. The Commission, in the wake of its two new prevention-oriented goals and systematic ways to hearings on September 24, 2015, and November 19, measure progress toward them. 2015, senses that the state’s Denti-Cal bureaucracy, in This introductory chapter, in keeping with the particular, may be overwhelmed and operating in a purely Commission’s mission to seek efficiency and economy reactive mode to a condition of growing oral health chaos within the state’s executive branch, describes the and rising antagonism from many of its beneficiaries, Commission’s Denti-Cal review process, the Denti-Cal providers and interest groups trying to improve program itself, the conditions it is trying to address conditions for Californians who receive public assistance. and why it is hard for beneficiaries to access dental Denti-Cal could greatly benefit from better partnerships, “I’m the parent of an adult with special needs. He’s been diagnosed with a [mental disability] and he also has autism. My son has been seen through a pediatrician since he was a small boy and he’s been sedated to have a procedure done because he had behaviors. He bites. He would fall on the floor and hit himself. He hits himself on the walls. So the pediatrician has told me that it’s traumatizing for him and also for the other patients that are being seen so he needs to be sedated. And for that last two years, the last two or three years, I was told that he needs to be put on a wait list because sedation was not covered by Medi-Cal and that is very nerve-racking as a parent because we know he needs a procedure. He has cavities in some of his teeth and yet there’s nothing that can be done. I can’t even get a cleaning from him because they can’t get in there. At home I brush his teeth for him and to floss. My husband and I have literally to put him on the floor and kind of sit on him and do as much as we can as fast as we can. In some ways I was lucky. Through networking with other parents, I found Dr. (Rodney) Bughao who was willing to see my son, which is another headache, trying to find a pediatrician who is willing to see your son. Now that he is 18, he (Dr. Bughao) put him in the books and he was scheduled to have a procedure done in December (2015). However, I got a call three weeks ago saying my son was not going to be placed on the books because Blue Anthem (Anthem Blue Cross) was not coming back with authorization and a majority of the patients are being denied. With that being said, it just raised the level of concern. It’s not a coincidence. My husband just two weeks ago started having toothaches. He had headaches. He couldn’t go to work. He got an infection where he actually had a root canal, but with that procedure happening two weeks ago, he’s normal. He can be put in a chair and get the procedure. That caused me concern. My husband and I thought that if my son’s in pain there’s nothing I can do about it right now. He’ll be back in pain and I’ll have to deal with him hitting his head. So it’s nerve wracking not knowing what or where. Because I haven’t been told when. I was just told most likely you’ll be denied. And I don’t think it’s fair. Not family-wise or to my son, where if he was in pain at any time. And I know it’s about to happen because we know he has cavities already. So I just want to share my story with you guys.” Jesana Tran, Sacramento-area mother of an 18-year-old special needs son, addressing the Commission in November 2015. Little Hoover Commission | 15 Fixing Denti-Cal care. It concludes with a recommendation designed to Assemblymember Jim Wood on April 6, 2015. “Millions increase the number of eligible beneficiaries getting care, of low-income Californians on Denti-Cal are suffering particularly preventative care to address an epidemic of because the promise of dental coverage by the state is tooth disease. not being fulfilled by Denti-Cal,” the lawmakers stated in their joint letter. They asked the Commission “to undertake a review of the Denti-Cal program and identify the necessary steps to assure this vital program meets Origins of the Commission’s Denti-Cal its purpose to provide access to dental care for many of Study the most vulnerable Californians including children.” The The Little Hoover Commission initiated its examination letter stated: “Your report will help guide the Legislature of the state’s Denti-Cal program after receiving a formal as we work to hold DHCS accountable to both Denti-Cal request for a review from Senator Richard Pan and beneficiaries and the public.” At a Glance: The Uncomplimentary 2014 Denti-Cal Audit The California State Auditor reviewed the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Denti-Cal program in 2014, in response to an August 8, 2013, request to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee by then-Senators Bill Emmerson and Mark DeSaulnier. The two senators expressed concern “that California is not fulfilling its obligation to ensure children enrolled in Medi-Cal receive timely access to dental care.” Stating that tooth decay is “the most common chronic disease children face and one of the top reasons they miss school,” the two asked that an audit outline DHCS actions to increase children’s use of Denti-Cal coverage and identify what more could be done. The California State Auditor released its findings on Dec. 11, 2014. The audit reported that:  “Information shortcomings and ineffective actions” by DHCS are putting child beneficiaries at higher risk of dental disease.  Only 43.9 percent of children enrolled in Denti-Cal had seen a dentist the previous year – the 12th worst among states that submitted data.  Reimbursement rates for the 10 most common dental procedures were 35 percent of the national average – and haven’t risen since the 2000-2001 budget year.  Eleven California counties had no Denti-Cal providers or no providers willing to accept new child patients covered by Denti-Cal: Del Norte, Tehama, Yuba, Sierra, Nevada, Amador, Calaveras, Alpine, Mariposa, Mono and Inyo counties.  California might not have enough Denti-Cal-participating dentists to handle millions of new Denti-Cal beneficiaries as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  DHCS had not adequately overseen its Denti-Cal administrative contractor, which had not “performed contract-required outreach for improving dental access in underserved areas.”11 Since the audit findings DHCS is working with the California State Auditor to resolve concerns and performance shortcomings noted in the audit. As of March 2016 the department has implemented 15 recommendations and continues to work toward implementing additional recommendations. Among changes the department released its first published comparison in years of California’s reimbursement rates to those nationally.12 16 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal The request from Senator Pan, a pediatrician and Care Act (ACA) has added an estimated three million Assemblymember Wood, a dentist, followed in the wake adult Californians to a state program still largely shunned of a biting December 2014 report from the California by practicing dentists. This expansion comes, too, on the State Auditor regarding Denti-Cal shortcomings under heels of moving an estimated 900,000 children from the supervision of DHCS. The audit cited reimbursement Healthy Families program to Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal.13 rates that are among the nation’s lowest for dentists – Within this expansionary context, it is easy to view the and also one of the nation’s lowest user rates of dental state’s dental care program as bursting at the seams, services for eligible low-income children. During a March and sense that without statewide momentum toward 17, 2015, joint legislative committee hearing on the improvements for Denti-Cal and beyond, opportunity California State Auditor’s findings, Senator Pan told his exists for greater difficulties. legislative colleagues, “I’ve seen too much suffering. I’m not sure I can stand it anymore. This department needs to change.” An Introduction to Denti-Cal In a June 2015 conversation following the Commission’s To understand the workings of Denti-Cal it is best to decision to pursue the review, Senator Pan reiterated briefly explain first the giant public health care systems to the Commission chair his belief that the entire Denti- under which it is housed – those of Medicaid and Medi- Cal “culture” – in his view, largely unaccountable state Cal. These two federal-state programs essentially operate administrators, reluctant, disgruntled dental providers as one combined program to deliver more than $90 and millions of Californians who use their benefits billion worth of medical and dental care annually to 13 haphazardly – needs to change. He told the Commission million or more eligible beneficiaries in California. chair that for the state bureaucracy in particular there appears to be “no consequences to doing a bad job. It  Medicaid is the nation’s largest health insurer doesn’t seem as folks act as if they’re being watched,” with combined federal-state spending of $475 he said. During the June 2015 conversation Senator Pan billion in the federal 2014 fiscal year that ended asked that the Commission consider four questions: September 30, 2014. Medicaid represents the largest domestic federal program after Social  Are children (and adults) getting the care they Security and Medicare, and is often the second need? largest item in state budgets after elementary  Is the state using its resources effectively? and secondary education. The program insures  Is DHCS paying sufficient attention to overseeing 70 million disadvantaged Americans, making it the largest source of federal funds for states. the Denti-Cal program? Typically, the federal government pays nearly  Is the level and quality of administration good 60 percent of its costs with states picking up the or not? rest. Though two-thirds of Medicaid spending The Commission began its review almost exactly 50 years is for the elderly and disabled, the program has after President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation on long been a lightning rod for debates about July 30, 1965, creating the federal Medicaid program to balanced state budgets and federal deficits.14 provide affordable health care to low-income Americans Medicaid requires states to provide dental care in alliance with states. Medicaid’s founding led, in to children up to 18 years of age and many states turn, to California’s March 1966 launch of Medi-Cal have extended it through age 20.15 to implement the joint federal-state health insurance  Medi-Cal, established as California’s Medicaid program. Both programs have undergone massive program through November 1965 legislation transformations in the decades since. The Commission’s signed by Governor Edmund Brown, Sr., pays review of Denti-Cal also took place during one of the health care bills for approximately 13 million or most sweeping transformations yet, as the Affordable more enrolled Californians. Medi-Cal’s combined Little Hoover Commission | 17 Fixing Denti-Cal federal and state spending during the 2015-16 Representatives of DHCS told the Commission that 38 fiscal year that ends June 30, 2016, is expected department employees operate Denti-Cal through an to total $91 billion. The state’s General Fund administrative contract with Delta Dental, the nation’s share is $18 billion. That is matched by a similar largest dental benefits company. A special Delta Dental of amount from local government contributions and California division – with approximately 350 employees in health care-related taxes, and fees on hospitals, 2015 – has for approximately 40 years operated as Denti- skilled nursing facilities and managed care plan Cal’s so-called Fiscal Intermediary and Administrative providers. More than 75 percent of Medi-Cal Services Only contractor.18 This long tenure has led some enrollees are in managed care plans.16 to suggest the relationship between the state and Delta Dental may have grown too cozy. Presently, DHCS is  Denti-Cal is the Medi-Cal dental health care working to reconfigure its administrative structure for component, a public insurance program Denti-Cal by splitting responsibilities for its Administrative established soon after the 1966 creation of Medi- Services Only and Fiscal Intermediary functions. The Cal. Denti-Cal budgeted $1.3 billion for enrollees department is seeking proposals from firms to operate during the 2015-16 fiscal year with the federal the two functions – processing and paying provider government contributing about 60 percent of the claims and conducting outreach to beneficiaries – payment – $808 million – and the state allocating separately. Interested bidders include Delta Dental $526 million of its own funds. Denti-Cal and DentaQuest, another major benefits provider and estimates that 8,361 California dentists – about contractor for state Medicaid dental programs. A DHCS 25 percent of the state’s total – provide services official told the Commissionj in March 2016 that Denti-Cal to Denti-Cal patients. Dentist participation rates anticipates having contracts fo the two functions in place vary by source, however. California is one of a few on July 1, 2016. The awardees will begin fulfilling their U.S. states that provide Medicaid dental benefits new duties on July 1, 2017. to adults.17 In essence, Delta Dental, operating in the same building Denti-Cal’s Tiny Niche in the Health Care System as DHCS’ Denti-Cal division, enrolls dentists into Denti- Cal, processes claims submitted by California dentists, One of the keys to understanding Denti-Cal’s pays dentists and authorizes treatments. The company apparent low-priority status is its almost hidden also handles customer service operations, answering calls existence within the massive state bureaucracy of from clients and helping them find dentists near their the California Department of Health Care Services homes. Delta Dental is assigned the responsibility of (DHCS). Denti-Cal’s $1.3 billion budget allocation reaching out to eligible beneficiaries to make them aware accounts for approximately 1.4 percent of the state’s of their Denti-Cal benefits and use them to get oral exams $91 billion in Medi-Cal spending overseen by DHCS and dental treatment.19 during the 2015-16 budget year that ends June 30, 2016. The DHCS Denti-Cal division has oversight responsibility for Delta Dental’s implementation of the program. The Denti-Cal’s bureaucratic footprint, in short, is California State Auditor in 2014 and other critics have insignificant compared to other immense Medi-Cal contended the department has not done well in fulfilling responsibilities at DHCS. Advocates say this is a its oversight role. The state auditor, in an ongoing defining part of the problem with Denti-Cal – a small update of departmental progress toward its audit program easily out of sight and out of mind within recommendations, notes that DHCS has implemented six the larger health care bureaucracy in Sacramento. recommendations for improved Delta Dental oversight. Denti-Cal’s administrative offices are not even Among them, it reports that DHCS has provided Delta housed within DHCS headquarters near the state Dental contact information for its beneficiaries in Capitol, but located 15 miles east in the Sacramento underserved areas and required the firm to make them suburbs. aware of their Denti-Cal benefits. The auditor also 18 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal reports that DHCS has implemented recommendations to dental offices, have improved their utilization rates in review Delta Dental’s outreach activities and implement recent years – and helped more children who need care measureable objectives. Likewise, DHSC implemented under general anesthesia. Sacramento County dentists “tangible measurements to evaluate Delta Dental’s also typically receive 10 percent higher reimbursement performance of all functions under the contract.” Finally, under managed care than other dentists in other the auditor reports that DHCS has directed Delta Dental counties.25 Dentists, however, have traditionally opposed to: alternatives to the straight fee-for-service model that has long been the backbone of dentistry.26 Indeed, the  Submit an annual plan describing how it will California Dental Association on January 25, 2016, urged remedy lack of access to dentists in underserved the state to eliminate Sacramento County’s managed care areas. system for dental care.27  Contract with other providers to add dental A Patchwork of Supplements to Denti-Cal services in fixed facilities or mobile clinics in underserved areas. Given Denti-Cal’s “bare-bones” coverage and the  Develop a dental outreach and education widespread absence of participating dentists in program and submit an annual plan describing it the program, California remains woefully short of at the end of each year. 20 adequate care for adults and children. A patchwork of supplemental programs has grown up to fill in some of How Denti-Cal Pays Participating Dentists the gaps. Denti-Cal is vastly different from regular medical health First among these are Federally Qualified Health Centers care in that the majority of beneficiaries are covered (FQHC). The FQHC designation refers to hundreds of through fee-for-service arrangements instead of the California health clinics and systems that operate in managed care model that has come to dominate most underserved, low-income and uninsured communities other medical care. The state pays dentists directly for that private-practice dentists tend to avoid. Importantly, services to its millions of beneficiaries. Unlike medical these nonprofit clinics also receive far higher dental doctors who increasingly work for health plans, dentistry care reimbursement rates from Medi-Cal than those largely still remains a landscape of small independent that Denti-Cal provides to private dentists. This special businesses. (A primary exception is Orange County-based designation and higher reimbursement rates has created Western Dental, which operates 160 offices throughout a separate – and by many accounts, more comprehensive California and employs approximately one-third of the and superior – dental provider model for low-income state’s dentists who accept Denti-Cal and see more than Californians. DHCS records indicate that FQHCs provide 100 Denti-Cal patients annually.21 Western Dental saw approximately one-third of Medi-Cal dental care to adults approximately one million Denti-Cal patients in 2015, the and children in California – $374 million worth in 2014. firm reported in January 2016).22 The federal government picks up nearly all the cost of More than 879,000 Denti-Cal beneficiaries do receive this FQHC-provided dental care – driving federal dollars dental care through managed care plans started as to account for more than 60 percent of Denti-Cal’s annual experimental alternatives in the 1990s – all in Los Angeles $1.3 billion budget. County, where managed care plans are optional for Second are the state’s First 5 county commissions, which beneficiaries and in Sacramento County where they are are funded by tobacco sales taxes and which allocated mandatory.23 Both had relatively rough starts and poor $23 million to safety-net care for children in 2014.28 track records in getting children into dentist offices for First 5 commissions stem from 1998’s Proposition 10, checkups, which has discouraged talk of their possible which established a 50-cent tax per pack of cigarettes expansion to other counties or statewide.24 But managed to establish early childhood development and smoking care plans in both counties, though continuing to lag prevention programs. Among standout First 5 programs behind fee-for-service models in getting children to visit Little Hoover Commission | 19 Fixing Denti-Cal is Orange County’s Healthy Smiles for Kids program, dental pain due to problem teeth miss 874,000 school which partners with a collective of community clinics to days annually, costing school districts $29 million in fund and provide screenings, treatment and education. attendance fees. He also said that children who report Orange County ranks first among California’s 58 counties having recent tooth pain are four times more likely to for utilization rates by young children with nearly half of have a low grade-point average, which can negatively the county’s young Denti-Cal eligible children receiving at impact their lifetime earning potential. least a preventative visit in the past year.29 Sacramento County’s First 5 Commission, likewise, has helped finance “When we initiated a dental program at the six children’s dental clinics in the county since 2009, a key Alameda County-operated Women, Infants factor in increasing the percentage of Denti-Cal-eligible and Children (WIC) Nutrition Supplementation children receiving dental services.30 Program sites, which serves virtually the same population as that eligible for Medi-Cal, we Also supplementing Denti-Cal is the free care given to found that as early as nine and 15 months of lower-income people by dentists who don’t want the age, 20 percent of the infants and toddlers bother and expense of dealing with Denti-Cal billing had already developed clinical evidence of the procedures – and two annual “CDA Cares” events when dental infection (white spot lesions)or frank California Dental Association professionals provide free decay on their “baby” teeth, and by age five, treatments, including fillings, tooth extractions and even that proportion had risen to 70 percent having dentures to approximately 4,000 or more people. Lastly, experienced tooth decay. This is particularly is a sprinkling of county-funded dental care. disconcerting since we know that dental decay, while, epidemic, is with appropriate early preventive and health promoting practices, Dental Disease in California: Prevalance nearly 100% preventable. and Consequences Dr. Jared Fine, retired 39-year Alameda County Dental disease is surprisingly prevalent in the U.S. and Dental Health Administrator31 California, and is considered the most common childhood illness in the nation, according to September 24, 2015, testimony provided by the California Dental Association Adults can have equally serious issues. “Infections in the (CDA). The CDA’s then-director of public policy, Nicette mouth in adults have been linked to adverse pregnancy Short, told the Commission: “While [dental disease] is outcomes, coronary heart disease, stroke and respiratory easily treatable when children have access to dental care, disease,” Dr. Kumar testified. “Often adults with poor it is more prevalent than asthma and obesity combined, dental health and missing teeth not only find it difficult to can lead to other medical conditions such as ear and eat well and socialize, but also obtain employment.” sinus infections and affects school attendance and These troubling conditions affect many Californians performance.” who qualify for Denti-Cal benefits. Dr. David J. Stone, California State Dental Director Jayanth Kumar, DDS, similarly testified that oral diseases are the “largest “I think it’s sugar. Sippy cups with soda. unmet health care need” for children. Dr. Kumar told the Hawaiian Punch. Toddlers with cans of soda.” Commission, “The burden of oral diseases constitutes a major challenge because of the economic and social costs Dr. Katharine Foster, a Sonoma County pediatrician, it imposes on society. In children, untreated disease can answering a question from Commission Vice Chair lead to impaired growth, altered speech, missed school Loren Kaye about why three-year-olds average days, difficulty in learning and lowered self-esteem.” a dozen or more diseased teeth at a Northern California dental surgery center. Dr. Kumar noted specifically that California children with 20 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal a practicing pediatrician in Amador County, told the providers who accept new Denti-Cal patients, the Commission at its November 2015 hearing, “There’s a risk California State Auditor reported in December of caries (rotting teeth) anyplace where the water supply 2014. Many more counties have far too few is deficient. Where there’s frequent sugar exposure. Denti-Cal dentists or specialists willing to treat Where there are developmental defects, family history of the onslaught of dental decay. dental caries, minority status, low socioeconomic status  A representative of the Santa Monica-based or failure to use fluoridated toothpaste.” Children’s Partnership told the Commission its Too Few Dentists: The #1 Contributor to Dental 2013 secret shopper survey of dentists who Disease accept Denti-Cal found that a majority wouldn’t see children under three – or had restrictive But these reasons begin and end with not going to the caveats on who they would take. dentist. And people with Denti-Cal coverage appear to have legitimate reasons for that in California.  California adults lost their Denti-Cal benefits altogether for five years beginning with 2009  Witnesses from rural Amador County, where budget cuts that placed them among adults in 35 there are no Denti-Cal providers, told the states without dental benefits. The state restored Commission their residents must drive 60 miles benefits in May 2014 for exams, X-rays, fillings, to see a dentist who accepts Denti-Cal. Eleven root canals on front teeth and full dentures. counties have no Denti-Cal providers or no Adults still have no coverage for root canals on Relationship of Oral Health to Overall Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life Poor oral health has greater impacts on personal lives and society than policymakers might expect, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in 2000. Among findings:  The mouth is a portal of entry, as well as the site of disease for microbial infections, that affect overall health.  Studies demonstrate association between periodontal diseases and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Diet, nutrition, sleep, psychological status, social interaction, school and work are affected by impaired oral health.  Oral diseases and their treatment place a burden on society in the form of lost days and years of productive work. Acute dental conditions contribute to a range of problems for employed adults, including restricted activity, bed days and work loss, and school loss for children.  Oral diseases and tooth loss contribute to compromised ability to bite, chew and swallow foods, limitations in food selection and poor nutrition.  Oral-facial pain, as a symptom of untreated dental and oral problems, is a major source of diminished quality of life. It is associated with sleep deprivation, depression and multiple adverse psychosocial outcomes.  Individuals with facial disfigurements due to oral diseases may experience loss of self-image and self- esteem, anxiety, depression and social stigma. These, in turn, may limit educational, career and marriage opportunities and affect other social relations.32 Little Hoover Commission | 21 Fixing Denti-Cal back teeth, partial dentures or treatment for is a formula for bankruptcy. Two years ago in San Diego gum disease. Adults also have an annual cap County, Dr. Lillia Larin, DDS, shut down a satellite office of $1,800, though that is flexible in the event of where 90 percent of patients had Denti-Cal coverage. documented and approved medical necessity.33 “You had to work twice as hard to get the reimbursement California children, deemed a higher policy to make the practice successful,” she said. “The patient priority, do not have these limitations. needs one or two fillings. Do I schedule a whole hour Witnesses and experts made it clear to the Commission that California has great demand for dental services and a “If you don’t have people willing limited supply of professionals to provide it. Yet dentists, to accept your product, such as too, appear to have defensible and legitimate reasons to Denti-Cal, what does that say not participate in a state and federal program to meet the about that? quiet emergency playing out in California homes. Dr. and Senator Richard Pan, addressing the Commission in California Reimbursement Rates are September 2015. Among the Nation’s Lowest Of every concern about Denti-Cal, none have generated to make $30 when I need $200 to $300 to pay the bills? more political attention and resonated louder in the With a lot of patients I just do the job to prevent bigger media than the program’s low reimbursement rates for problems for them down the line.” participating dentists and dental groups. A July 1, 2015, DHCS survey of rates paid to Medicaid dentists nationally Like Dr. Larin, Dr. John Blake, DDS, executive director showed that California dentists receive about one-third of the Children’s Dental Health Clinic in Long Beach, of what their colleagues nationally are paid for treating shuttered a children’s dental clinic in Bellflower during Medicaid-eligible patients. Reimbursement rates, the summer of 2015. He testified to the Commission, “I indeed, haven’t risen since the 2000-2001 budget year in carried that for a couple of years. I didn’t think I could California, and only in 2014 was a 2009 recession-driven get any more efficient and make it work. It was losing 10 percent cut to reimbursement rates rescinded. $7,000 to $8,000 a month, a three-chair facility open four days a week.” Dentists frequently expressed to the Commission their widely-held belief that taking too many Denti-Cal patients In May 2015, the state’s leading Denti-Cal provider, Denti-Cal Reimbursement Payments Compared to Elsewhere in the U.S. Procedure California New York Illinois Florida Texas National Average Oral Exam $15.00 $25.00 $28.00 $29.12 $28.85 $45.61 Set of X-Rays $40.00 $50.00 $25.06 $58.24 $70.64 $123.70 Cleaning - Adult $40.00 $45.00 $21.15 $36.40 $54.88 $85.38 Cleaning - Children $30.00 $43.00 $41.00 $26.00 $36.75 $63.08 Fillings $39.00 $50.00 $25.68 N/A $116.38 $64.41 Crown $75.00 $110.00 $91.11 $74.36 $227.05 $152.91 Source: Department of Health Care Services. July 1, 2015. “Medi-Cal Dental Services Rate Review.” Pages 12, 13, 15. http:// www.dhcs.ca.gov/Documents/2015_Dental-Services-Rate-Review.pdf 22 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal Orange County-based Western Dental announced accepting low-income patients covered by Denti-Cal. it would stop taking new Denti-Cal patients at 13 The CDA blames the state for running a public assistance California offices due to low reimbursement rates.34 dental program that doesn’t begin to cover its members’ Simultaneously, Moody’s Investor’s Services downgraded costs. To add further aggravation to the financial losses the company’s debt rating, saying its business model of accepting Denti-Cal patients, they say, are difficult included a high proportion of Denti-Cal patients with time-consuming administrative processes that compare low reimbursement rates.35 In late 2015, the company poorly to commercial insurers and a patient population announced that had reinstated Denti-Cal coverage at with higher “no-show” rates than the general population. offices that had stopped accepting new Denti-Cal patients “It’s pervasive. I hear it all the time, constant complaints. due to low reimbursement rates. 36 How many times will a provider put up with that and stay The California Dental Association (CDA), as the state’s in the system? I think they won’t,” Dr. Terrence Jones, trade association for dentists, says many of its members DDS, of Sacramento, told Commission staff. believe they are unfairly maligned as heartless in not Twenty-Five Years of Variable Denti-Cal Reimbursement Rates California dentists have seen endless variability in reimbursement rates for treating Denti-Cal clients. Payment levels to dentists have fluctuated up and down for years due to court rulings, legislative actions, turbulence in the California economy and its subsequent impacts on the state budget. A timeline of Denti-Cal’s historic rate instability during the last quarter century in California:  In 1991, Denti-Cal reimbursement rates rose to cover 40 percent to 55 percent of customary billing charges in response to a federal court order in Clark v. Kizer/Coye. In 1992, a second federal court order raised Denti-Cal reimbursement rates to 80 percent of average billing charges.  In 2000, state budget action raised Denti-Cal reimbursement rates another 6.8 percent, and added two annual regular cleanings and two dental exams to benefits for all beneficiaries.  In 2003, the Legislature imposed a 5 percent cut in Denti-Cal reimbursement rates, effective January 1, 2004.  In 2008, the Legislature imposed a 10 percent cut in reimbursement rates effective July 1, 2008. A federal court injunction halted the rate cut on August 18. On September 9, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) suspended the 10 percent reduction.  In 2009, the Legislature eliminated Denti-Cal coverage for low-income adults.  In 2013, the Legislature ordered a new 10 percent reduction in reimbursement rates beginning October 1, 2013.  On December 1, 2013, DHCS exempted dental pediatric surgery centers from 10 percent cuts in reimbursement rates.  In 2013, the Legislature restored partial eligibility of low-income adults for Denti-Cal effective May 1, 2014.  In 2015, the Legislature raised Denti-Cal reimbursement rates by 10 percent effective July 1, 2015, a $60 million expense with the state responsible for $30 million.37 Little Hoover Commission | 23 Fixing Denti-Cal Drs. Blake, Jones and Larin all told the Commission they we have to recognize that.” doubt the state will again increase reimbursement rates Prospects for continued inaction on reimbursement rates any time soon due to the costs. Yet all said it will take also mean the impacts and costs ripple up the line at a sizeable hike to even dent the problem of dentists ever-greater expense to dental specialists, emergency sitting out the Denti-Cal program. At a March 2015 rooms and hospital surgery suites. At the Commission’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing about Denti- September 2015, hearing, Senator Pan also said, “You Cal, Senator Pan told his legislative colleagues “Even if have a third of all Californians who have small children we doubled rates, we would only be 70 percent of the who are stuck in this plan. And the fact that you’re national average.” squeezing on one end of the balloon, as they say, it starts popping out the other. If people can’t get in with prevention, they eventually show up for more serious Low Rates Incentivize Questionable treatments. Now you have cavities that aren’t treated Behavior, Raise Health Care Costs and you’re putting in a crown. Then they set up in the emergency room with an abscess and now you’re treating At the September 2015 hearing, Senator Pan told the that. Then they have to have teeth extracted and then Little Hoover Commission it should consider the question: you’re talking about dentures and on and on. You start to “How are Denti-Cal policies incentivizing provider cause this ball to roll.” behavior, some perhaps that are not necessarily ones that are desirable? When you have payment rates that do Dr. Larin told Commission staff that one of her biggest not adequately cover practice expenses there’s pressure challenges is finding specialists to take cases she can’t on providers then to make that up if they’re going to be handle. She told the Commission she has to pick up viable to perform high-volume, particularly more highly- a phone and beg specialists to accept her emergency paid services and procedures. Then the department cases, often unsuccessfully. Consequently, she said, these responds when they see this higher volume by creating patients end up in the emergency room at high cost to even more barriers to payment, which drives out even the local and state health system. more providers and basically who are you left with? People who have figured out how to work the system to Dr. Rosa Arzu, dental director at Los Angeles-based Alta do high volume just to keep the practice viable. I think Med, the nation’s largest FQHC, told Commissioners at Civil Rights Complaint: Reimbursement Rates = Intentional Discrimination California’s low reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal prompted civil rights groups in December 2015 to file an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alleging that “Medi-Cal’s inadequate, extremely low reimbursement rates – in both the fee for service and managed care settings – and its failure to adequately monitor access to medical care, effectively deny the full benefits of the Medi-Cal program to more than seven million Latino enrollees who rely on Medi-Cal for their health care.” Low reimbursement rates, the complaint alleges, have shriveled the supply of doctors and dentists available to Latinos, caused them long waits to see specialists and created a “separate and unequal system of healthcare in California.” The well-to-do have commercial insurance or well-reimbursed Medicare coverage, states the complaint, while lower-income Latinos have a plan shunned by doctors and dentists. It states further that since 2000, Medi-Cal reimbursement rates paid to doctors and dentists in California have fallen behind Medicare rates of reimbursement in almost direct proportion to the numerical rise and statewide share of Latinos covered by Medi- Cal. The complaint seeks a federal investigation and a hike in Medi-Cal/Denti-Cal reimbursement rates to ensure that Medi-Cal enrollees enjoy the same quality of health care as other groups in the general population.38 24 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal the November 2015 hearing that people ask to have if this system was not in place. But that access to timely, their teeth pulled out rather than endure the pain while appropriate care is no longer available. The problem waiting for reluctant specialists to see them. “When is that the system has been allowed to morph into its I have to refer patients, there are limited resources current form of dysfunction, serving neither the patient outside, of providers who want to see our patients,” she nor the provider,” he testified on behalf of himself and testified, “especially when it comes to specialty services.” the California Dental Association, a trade association for approximately 26,000 California dental professionals. “I strongly advocate to preserve the teeth, not to extract them,” Dr. Arzu told the Commission. “But patients get Dr. Blake, among others, told the Commission it’s hardly really frustrated that they cannot get treatment and they enough to tinker around the edges of the program. have pain. And you know, it’s very painful so they want “What if you started from scratch and abolished to go with the option of extracting the teeth. These are the system?” he asked. “It truly is dysfunctional and some of the areas where we continue and it’s just getting broken.” Dr. James Musser, DDS, a Sacramento-area worse. I really try to engage these providers, but the cost to treat these patients is very high and not sustainable for “One solution is what I have termed the them.” “nuclear” option. Blow the whole system up and start from scratch. What might that History shows that the Legislature and Governor are system look like? Give each eligible child’s reluctant to undertake the vast multibillion-dollar family a traceable card (or smartphone app) expenses it will require to significantly raise rates with $500 loaded annually to be used for across the board in the future. As this is a political (non-esthetic/elective) dental care. They can issue, the Commission did not directly engage in go to any registered office of their choice and the subject nor make recommendations regarding establish a dental home for their child. There wholesale reimbursement rate hikes during this study. would be an obvious incentive to arrest current The Commission did review, however, the workable dental disease, change destructive habits, keep alternative of highly-targeted rate hikes to address and maintain a healthy mouth. Yes, parents specific goals, such as more dental care in areas with may have to pay for annual dental services great need and few providers, and also for preventative above the $500 limit. Most would not want care, particularly for children. This will be discussed in to do this every year and would have a strong greater detail in Chapter III. incentive to maintain optimal oral health. The one exception to this program would be those patients with documented special needs/ Beyond Rates: Dentists Say Denti-Cal is disabilities. There should still be a system of “Broken” and “Dysfunctional” reimbursement for dentists that treat these complex patients, often under sedation or California dentists told the Commission that the Denti-Cal anesthesia. It has been difficult to ascertain care delivery system is not only difficult and frustrating the true current cost of the Denti-Cal system, for dental professionals, but worse, that it largely fails to but from the publicly available numbers I serve its customers. “I’m now a veteran in this found, this proposed system would be cheaper well-intended highly-flawed system called Denti-Cal,” than the current one. It would also put some testified Dr. John Blake, DDS, executive director of the responsibility back with patients/families Long Beach-based Children’s Dental Health Clinic, in and encourage a better dentist/patient September 2015. “We have created a system where relationship.” now 53 percent of our state’s children are eligible for a card that gives them access to free dental care. Please Dr. John Blake, DDS, Executive Director and Dental do not misinterpret my discontent; there are many Director, Children’s Dental Health Clinic, Long Beach. children that would have no other access to dental care Little Hoover Commission | 25 Fixing Denti-Cal dentist, responding to a Denti-Cal staff presentation  “The Denti-Cal system is organized with an during an August 2015 Sacramento County Medi-Cal emphasis on providing complex treatment which Dental Advisory Committee meeting, used a decade-old is needed after disease has progressed rather Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger analogy, saying, “It’s than an emphasis on reaching people early and not enough to rearrange the boxes. We need to blow up preventing the development of disease. the boxes.” Dr. Paul Glassman, dental professor at the  “The Denti-Cal system is organized to emphasize San Francisco-based Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry treatment services provided in dental offices and at University of the Pacific, expressed similar sentiment clinics. Unfortunately, the majority of Denti-Cal in an August 19, 2015, letter to the Commission. In the eligible people do not access services in these letter, Dr. Glassman contended the state’s entire approach offices and clinics. to dental care for a vulnerable, needy population contributes to the problem: Other States Have Reformed Their Medicaid Dental Programs Several U.S. states with problems similar to those in California have upgraded their Medicaid Dental programs in recent years to attract more dentists and raise utilization rates by those eligible for dental services. Some examples:  Minnesota: Minnesota’s dental administrator used a mobile dental clinic to visit underserved communities. The mobile clinic provided X-rays, exams, cleanings, fillings, extractions and fluoride treatments onsite. The program partnered with the University of Minnesota for faculty-supervised dental residents to provide care at the mobile clinic.40  Iowa: Iowa established 24 regional dental coordinators as points-of-contact for families, providers and dentists in its program. Licensed dental hygienists act as these coordinators, developing local referral systems, coordinating care and training dental health care providers.41  Texas: To increase dentist participation, Texas created the Dental Education Loan Repayment Program. Dentists who practice at least 12 months in underserved areas receive up to $10,000 to pay back their dental school student loans. Texas also created a toll-free hotline for program participants to receive one-on-one assistance over the phone.42  Virginia: Virginia converted its dental care delivery system for Medicaid recipients from managed care to a single state administrator, which handles only handle dental care. A separate administrator covers medical care under Medicaid. 43  Maryland: Maryland also carved its Medicaid dental program out of managed care into a fee-for-service system. The state also developed a training and certification program for medical providers to conduct oral health exams and fluoride varnish. Maryland also permits dental hygienists to provide care at schools and Head Start centers.44  Connecticut: Connecticut established a care coordination and case management team of eight dental health care specialists, with seven covering specific regions, and one working with special-needs clients. The state also established a bilingual client-focused call center to act as an intermediary between dentists and patients. The call center refers patients, schedules appointments and arranges transportation for clients.45 26 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Restart for Denti-Cal  “There is limited ability under the Denti-Cal demands stronger action. The Commission senses that system to receive payment for activities that the Denti-Cal program is bureaucratically frozen in ways bring dental services to community locations and that will become more evident in the next chapter. The provide services that emphasize prevention and ability to progress beyond the current silent emergency early intervention.” 39 requires a vision, and the ability to build a vision requires a target. California is familiar with setting targets, particularly to meet long-range environmental goals. The presence of targets will motivate employees, show The State Should Set a Bold Target and progress and continually point efforts toward success. Get Started The Commission begins this report with the call to simply The Commission recognizes the enormity of the challenge get more people to see a dentist or dental professional. facing DHCS staffers in providing quality dental care The ways to do so are small and they are large. But they on the massive scale now necessary in California. By need to begin. all accounts, the reimbursement rates set by the Governor and Legislature are simply too low to attract enough providers. “How many of you are still working A Path to Action: Begin With a Forceful for the same salary as you had in 1991?” one hearing Utilization Target attendee asked the Commission in September 2015. The DHCS Denti-Cal division must deal with a 25-year Recommendation 1: the Legislature should set legacy of Legislature-driven reimbursement rates that a target of 66 percent of children with Denti- have risen and fallen with the state of the economy – Cal coverage making annual dental visits. and which make the state an unstable and unreliable Additionally, the Legislature should: funding partner for the state’s dental profession. The Commission equally recognizes from the experiences in  Conduct oversight hearings to assess progress other states that no matter what level reimbursement or lack of movement on all initiatives designed rates are, a limited number of dentists will participate. to reach this target, and particularly on implementation of the five-year $740 million More, the population eligible for Denti-Cal is not an Denti-Cal targeted incentive plan to increase easy one to bring into dental offices. Its members have children’s preventative dental visits. limited transportation, limited time in their working lives and limited education about the importance of  Ensure the state dental director has adequate regular checkups and preventative care. Denti-Cal authority to see that the Denti-cal targeted officials, meanwhile, must be vigilant for the inevitable incentive program aligns with the 2016 oral fraud conducted by some providers while trying not health plan. to paint the entire profession with a broad brush. As the Commission has discovered during its study, DHCS’ Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal staffers, too, must work with The Legislature should declare its intent that annual demanding partners who see or experience the dreadful, Denti-Cal utilization rates among children in California painful outcomes of poor dental care up close and want climb well into the 60 percent range, as is the case in something done about it immediately. It cannot be easy approximately 20 percent of U.S. states.46 A specific for department staffers to keep their focus in the midst of target of two-thirds of children using their benefits so much raw, human need. annually, comparable to children with commercial insurance, will gradually stimulate and accelerate the However, a worsening epidemic of rotting teeth, of necessary range of small and larger solutions by DHCS toddlers needing surgery because their mouths are and its partners to get there. The Department of Health already ruined, of desperate parents being unable to Care Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid get treatment for their special needs children and adults Little Hoover Commission | 27 Fixing Denti-Cal Services recently announced an experimental five-year incentive plan to focus on prevention and increase children’s annual dental visits by 10 percentage points. However, it remains uncertain if the plan will produce results to meet that goal. Separately, the state’s new Oral Health Plan being produced by State Dental Director Jayanth Kumar, DDS, within the California Department of Public Health and scheduled for release in June 2016, also aims toward a 10-year increase in the numbers of children making an annual dental visit. While the Commission has strong hopes for these two plans, the Legislature, in addition to continuing strict performance oversight of the DHCS Denti-Cal program in general, should oversee both plans as they work in tandem and closely monitor their progress or lack thereof. The Legislature and Administration also should ensure that the state dental director has adequate authority to align the plans and publicly recommend and make necessary course changes to reach an improved utilization rate. California’s entire dental health care bureaucracy should work with its partners in the private, public and non- profit sector toward a target of 66 percent utilization rates among children. 28 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade A Customer-Centered Upgrade Many Little Hoover Commission studies deal with provider and more on customer service and meeting the perceptions that state agencies adhere blindly to needs of its beneficiaries. bureaucratic process and disregard legitimate issues of those they serve. But Denti-Cal may be unique “I think sometimes the culture in the widespread dislike that dental providers and of the department, i.e., its other partners have for the state program and the rather rigid bureaucracy, outdated processes it uses. The Commission heard is perceived, as instead of repeatedly during its study process that the state’s meeting the needs of that administrative and billing processes are terrible in very needy, at-risk vulnerable comparison to commercial insurance – and, along community, that they have with low reimbursement rates, are a big reason why not been flexible enough or dental providers won’t participate. Dentists told the focused enough to meet that core need. I have Commission they feel nitpicked, second guessed and for many years had some concerns about the presumed dishonest by state government dental staffers way the department communicates with your whom they do not consider peers. beneficiaries, in writing, cultural competency, all those kinds of things.” The Commission also heard that the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), which administers Senator Holly Mitchell, addressing DHCS Director Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal, is not good at inclusion. Jennifer Kent at her January 20, 2015 confirmation Witnesses and others interviewed by the Commission hearing before the Senate Rules Committee. said officials responsible for Denti-Cal go through the motions of listening to outside advice, but seldom seem Billing and Administrative Issues to act on it, and create arbitrary rules that make no sense to dentists accustomed to smooth-functioning Dental professionals told the Commission that commercial insurance plans. They told the Commission alongside low reimbursement rates Denti-Cal’s everyday the department acts unilaterally in ways that harm administrative issues make them think the system its beneficiaries, particularly in the special needs is broken and cause them to balk at enrolling and community. Others said the department is awash in accepting patients. Dentists described complications red tape that burdens the majority of providers to experienced by their billing specialists that cost them prevent fraud among a few, and is unaccountable and more in administrative time than bills are worth. They inexplicable in its decision-making to outsiders who complained – in a world of easy, commonplace online advocate for improved care. This chapter addresses transactions – of their offices repeatedly faxing paper many of the issues that have alienated California’s dental claim forms back and forth with the state and being professionals. It also recommends a series of cultural rejected for seemingly trivial reasons. “The billing system and administrative changes to attract more dentists to is so different,” Senator Richard Pan told the Commission. the Denti-Cal program and, as a consequence, strengthen “You have to hire a biller who can deal with the system, a the oral health of all Californians. The department and biller who understands Denti-Cal,” he said. its Denti-Cal division could benefit by focusing less on policies tailored for the lowest common denominator of Little Hoover Commission | 29 Fixing Denti-Cal The California Dental Association (CDA), in written requirements provide additional barriers to provider testimony for the September 2015 hearing, summarized participation in the program. Dentists have expressed this frustration with billing and administrative issues dissatisfaction with the Medi-Cal program’s increasingly expressed by many of its members: “The system and more complicated processes and feel they are left extensive paperwork that providers must go through without an engaged partner in the department to address to obtain reimbursement for the care they provide is these issues. Additionally, dentists have expressed the exceptionally time-consuming and cumbersome. There notion that the Denti-Cal administrators do not respect are rules and processes in the state’s program that do not their professional judgment regarding patient care, exist within the commercial coverage system, which make creating a lack of positive provider sentiment in the it more difficult for dentists to incorporate Denti-Cal program.” services into the rest of their practice.” Dr. David J. Stone, an Amador County pediatrician The CDA continued, “We hear from members that who provides oral exams for children in a county with ambiguous criteria, delayed payments, inconsistent no Denti-Cal providers, testified at the Commission’s treatment authorizations and extensive documentation November 2015 hearing that in his practice he has Inefficiencies of Denti-Cal are “Absolutely Staggering” At the September 2015 hearing, Commission Vice Chair Loren Kaye asked Assemblymember Jim Wood what it would take to “get the ball rolling” on some Denti-Cal changes to improve dental provider participation. The Assemblymember, a former practicing dentist, answered: “I have direct knowledge of all those challenges and quite frankly where do you start is a real challenge. Obviously, the reimbursement rates are a critical component, but the actual inefficiencies of the program are absolutely staggering. It took a long time to get my provider license. It shouldn’t take that long to do that. It was much faster with private dental care like Delta Dental, to get it. Even though Delta is the administrator for Denti-Cal it was still a much more onerous procedure. I think the current process, which I will grant there is work being done on that, that application is like 40 pages long and a lot of that doesn’t apply to dentists. And that’s ridiculous in this day and age. And you can’t do it online. You can’t access a lot of this stuff online. It’s ludicrous. The billing challenges around how you bill for specific procedures. The requirement for preauthorization treatment for specific procedures like fillings, for crying out loud, make it really difficult. This is a challenging population of patients to work with. Having them come back multiple times to get treatment is really, really difficult. “The billing part for the provider is the worst billing system of anything I have ever worked with in the 27 years I practiced dentistry. And more often than not, even with experienced staff, the return rate on claims was 25 percent because maybe you left a box out, or didn’t process a fee somewhere, or didn’t have the exact word for the description for why you were treating that specific tooth. Which I will say, you never have to do with a commercial carrier. “It got to a point in my practice where I just simply said, ‘You know what, you have a dollar threshold and if we get to that point, I’m not going to have my staff, at $25 an hour, which I was paying my person to do this, to chase a $30 dollar claim multiple times.’ So there are multiple bites of the apple. But the inefficiencies of the program for providers being part of it, the treatment authorization challenges and the billing are things that could make a big difference and take a lot of that pressure off practitioners.” 30 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade seen two pediatricians handily reimbursed for doing a insurers and easily signing up with them online, even particular oral procedure and two other pediatricians these hints of promise may largely seem too little too denied throughout 2015 for doing the same procedure – late. “and nobody can tell us why.” Enrolling as a Denti-Cal Provider is During that hearing, Commission Vice Chair Loren Kaye Time-Consuming, Difficult and Can’t Be Done asked Mindy Epperson, a supervising pediatric nurse Online in Dr. Stone’s practice, to provide specific examples of California dentists get their first exposure to Denti- billing difficulties. Ms. Epperson had just testified that Cal’s inefficiencies when they try to enroll to become billing the state for oral health exams performed by providers. Numerous representatives of the dental pediatricians – in a county where lower-income people business told the Commission it takes months to enroll have no other dental care options – is not “as easy as I with the state program in comparison to the easy process think they could or should be.” of enrolling in a commercial program. “Providing a clean bill is not as intuitive as you think it “My son is a new dentist. It took almost three to four would be,” Ms. Epperson told the Commission. “There months to get enrolled as a Denti-Cal provider, are specific forms that need to be filled in. I’m trying to San Diego County dentist Dr. Lillia Larin told the be polite. A PM 160 is required for every physical that Commission during an August 2015 conversation. “If I we perform and that form in itself is very cumbersome. want to add anyone into a commercial insurance plan it There are boxes, that if not checked, or there isn’t takes two weeks. It’s so difficult. They ask for more and information in them, we won’t get reimbursed. We’ll be more.” denied right out of the gate. It’s not filled in electronically. It’s done by hand and then the coding and the cost is “The time that it takes to do that, the hassle, the burden, entered into that, and if any of those numbers are not it’s tremendous,” then-CDA Director of Public Policy visible, not completely visible on the faxed form, they will Nicette Short testified at the September 2015 hearing. be denied.” “The frustration that we have from our members who are trying to do the right thing and join the system. It The Commission learned in testimony and conversations takes in some cases six months to a year. We have stories with dental providers that improving two state processes of that. Mounds of paperwork that have to be faxed alone – enrollment and pre-authorization for treatment back and forth. It’s simply just a hassle and barrier to – could go far to lessening provider frustrations with the providers that want to join the network and just give up.” Denti-Cal system. Fixes to the two issues that follow represent so-called “low-hanging fruit” that could show Brianna Pittman, CDA legislative director, said new quick results in encouraging more dentists to accept dentists typically don’t accept Denti-Cal patients as they Denti-Cal patients. begin their practices because it takes up to six months to get enrolled in the program. By the time they receive To its credit, the department and its Denti-Cal division, approval to participate, she said, they often have built up both under new leadership in 2015, has begun to a clientele with commercial insurance and do not need to streamline the two processes. In February 2016 DHCS accept Denti-Cal patients. officials told the Commission that it is in the review stage of simplifying and shortening the enrollment Ms. Short told the Commission that dentists must fill out form. During the Commission’s 2015 review, DHCS also 22 pages or more of paper forms tailored to doctors who eliminated a blanket policy that required dentists to send are applying to become Medi-Cal providers. The state X-rays to the department to prove the need for nearly has no Denti-Cal enrollment form specifically for dentists. all work they perform. Both will be explained in greater This often causes confusion among dentists unfamiliar detail later in this chapter. But for dental providers with some terms used by medical doctors. “The form is accustomed to largely being trusted by commercial designed for all health care providers and some of the Little Hoover Commission | 31 Fixing Denti-Cal questions may not apply to the dentist and when not that CDA’s internal Medi-Cal Working Group and other answered completely can be rejected,” the CDA stated dentists have made repeated offers in recent years to in written testimony. Small oversights, for example, meet with Denti-Cal staffers to discuss ways to simplify such as failing to answer “NA” or “not applicable” to a and improve the enrollment forms and eliminate them question can cause paperwork to be kicked back to the as a barrier to dental provider participation. She said no applicant to start over, CDA representatives testified meetings have resulted from those offers. in September 2015. The CDA’s message to the state Delta Dental to the State: Use Our Enrollment Denti-Cal bureaucracy is as consistent as it has gone long Form Instead unheeded. A California Healthline report once quoted then-CDA Manager of Policy Development Gayle Mathe A Delta Dental of California representative testified to the as saying, “Enrollment for dentists should be simple and Commission with an easier, more direct answer to the streamlined, an easy click-through process online.” The enrollment criticisms. Joe Ruiz, the firm’s vice president date of the report: August 4, 2008. for government affairs, said Delta Dental has offered the state a version of its online commercial application form. Long-time Denti-Cal dentists also are required now to re- enroll with the program due to provisions in the federal “Our application for commercial is about 13 pages Affordable Care Act which added several million new long, of which about 10 pages are actual contractual beneficiaries. “One of our members said it took a year. agreements and the other two or three are the Another said it took seven months to re-enroll,” said Ms. application,” he told the Commission. “That’s about half Short. Testifying to the Commission in September 2015, as long as the length of the application for Denti-Cal’s she described the case of a veteran Denti-Cal dentist who program. We’ve had a number of discussions with the had leased the same dental office for 40 years, but had department; let’s just take our app and we can lift and to make copies of the lease and all amendments to that shift the Delta application to the Denti-Cal program. lease over 40 years and fax them to Denti-Cal as part of Again, it’s very well received, but as I understand there his recertification application. are administrative processes, there are things that are codified into regulation that have to be addressed before “Last year (2014), participating dentists were we just rebrand the Delta app with Denti-Cal and we’re asked to re-enroll or signify that they no longer off and running. wished to provide care in the Denti-Cal system. Said Mr. Ruiz, “To me that’s an example of what I would Those that chose to stay in were met with a consider low hanging fruit. That makes it a lot easier very lengthy application with odd, seemingly non-relevant questions. It took one of our staff members almost 40 hours gathering “It Wouldn’t Be Good” information to help our 17 dentists re-apply. This is not an efficient system and certainly During the September 2015 hearing, Senator and does not encourage dentists to participate.” Commissioner Anthony Canella asked Joe Ruiz, vice president for state government programs at Delta Written Testimony. Dr. John Blake, DDS., executive Dental of California, “As a commercial provider, director, Children’s Dental Health Clinic, Long Beach. what would happen to your firm if you provided the same level of service that the state provides through Denti-Cal?” “We raised that with the department earlier this year (2015) and said there has to be a better way,” Ms. Short “It wouldn’t be good,” Ruiz answered. told the Commission. “My understanding is that there was one provider 20 years ago, who used a P.O., who “It wouldn’t be good,” Senator and Commissioner did the wrong thing, and now they have this process in Canella repeated. place for all dentists.” Ms. Short also told the Commission 32 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade to get in the program and a lot easier to stay in the application will only contain required program. We know that is a significant barrier to provider information necessary for completing participation.” the enrollment process thus aiding in streamlining the enrollment process During the September 2015, hearing, Commission with a goal towards increasing provider Chairman Pedro Nava, told a representative of DHCS that enrollment and participation. DHCS will it should ask the Legislature’s assistance to deal with share the final draft application with any regulatory obstacles to simply using Delta Dental’s stakeholders, including legislative staff for online enrollment form. He also suggested that the review and comment; once it is finalized, department take lessons from the commercial sector. it will be posted in the Denti-Cal provider “When Delta Dental is saying that perhaps under the manual.” right circumstances you can take their processes and their contract and put the State of California logo on The Commission can’t know the response from it, then we need figure out how to help you get to that providers and department partners once the new form is point so you aren’t confronted with regulatory obstacles introduced. Nor does it have a timetable for when new particularly if you get to the same objective, which is dentists might begin using it. A similar improvement program integrity.” described by DHCS to Commission staff in July 2015 – a proposed new online enrollment form available to DHCS: A New Enrollment Package is in Final Medi-Cal-only providers by year’s end – had not yet been Review introduced as of February 2016. In early 2016 DHCS told the Legislature and the The department also informed the Commission that there Commission that it is working on a new version of is no timeline to integrate dental providers into an online the enrollment forms to ease some of the concerns enrollment process such as that used by commercial expressed by participating dental providers. At her insurers. Estimates from the department indicate that it January 20 confirmation hearing before the Senate Rules hopes to begin enrolling dentists online in two to three Committee Director Jennifer Kent explained, “There’s years.47 Such an extended timeline is disappointing. The certain things about our application that we have to ask, Commission’s October 2015 report, A Customer-Centric back to federal law, so we can’t get around those. But we Upgrade for California Government, showed how new have been in discussions with Delta (Dental) about using digital service teams inside the federal government their network, using their providers to proxy, so if they are upgrading technology to remove performance want to be a Denti-Cal provider, can we just ask those bottlenecks like those described regarding the Denti-Cal questions that we have to on a federal level and let the enrollment form. The report also suggested it would credential of Delta stand in for the rest?” be easier if “the Denti-Cal provider form is streamlined and modeled after commercial insurance provider On February 4, 2016, the department responded to a applications, eliminating all fields that relate solely to Commission question about the status of Delta Dental’s Medi-Cal. Dentists complete and submit this simpler offer to let the department use its online enrollment form online.” If the State of California adopts similar form: digital service teams, the Denti-Cal enrollment form “The Department’s proposed group and would make a worthy target. individual provider enrollment package Dentists Need Permission to Perform Routine for Denti-Cal is currently undergoing Restorative Treatments final internal review. The Department intends to refine the standard Denti-Cal Dentists who have successfully enrolled to be Denti- enrollment package by transforming the Cal providers quickly run into a second obstacle unlike current 34-page provider enrollment anything they encounter with commercial insurance application to 10 pages. The revised Little Hoover Commission | 33 Fixing Denti-Cal plans. Before they do the most complicated restorative reimbursement claims for routine fillings already done. dental procedures for their Denti-Cal patients they must Most of those X-rays were never reviewed, despite the first submit X-rays to the state and receive permission time and expense that dental offices incurred in making to perform the work or find themselves in the position duplicates and sending them to Denti-Cal. However, of overcoming denials. While these procedures do not during the Commission’s study process the department represent the majority of dental work done in California, eliminated that blanket requirement. Dentists must they are frequently necessary given the long-untreated still document the need for routine restorations such as tooth decay experienced by many child and adult fillings and prefabricated crowns by taking X-rays, but Denti-Cal patients. Pre-authorization requirements, they are no longer required to send the X-rays to Denti- too, are part of an administrative system that causes Cal with their requests for payment. The department dentists to balk at becoming providers and further shrinks told the Commission that X-rays are now only required the amount of available dental care for lower-income if a random review suggests the need for Denti-Cal to Californians and their children. see them. More complicated two- and three-surface restorations still require X-rays, however, when dentists “Compared to commercial insurance carriers, the Denti- submit their claims for reimbursement.48 Cal system is perversely challenging to navigate,” Dr. Blake testified at the Commission at its September Little Difference in Fraud Between 2015 hearing. “Procedures that are not questioned and Commercial Insurance and Denti-Cal routinely paid by commercial carriers require pre-authorization, often delaying timely and necessary During the September 2015 hearing, Joe Ruiz, vice treatment. Examples are crowns, root canals and president, state government programs for Denti- periodontal (gum) treatments. I have one full-time Cal’s administrator, was asked by the Commission employee that dedicates her workweek to if fraud is higher in state programs than in pre-authorizations and resubmissions.” commercial insurers. Mr. Ruiz said he didn’t have Denti-Cal requires pre-authorization – a so-called data to answer the questions, but speculated to the Treatment Authorization Request (TAR) – for these Commission that there is little difference between more complicated restorative procedures as a way of the two sectors. preventing fraud among dental providers. Denti-Cal providers say, however, that the current blanket While this change made by DHCS is commendable and requirements amount to an extra burden on every easing the burden on dental offices to copy and mail provider to stem abuse by the few. They also require their X-rays to the state, witnesses told the Commission low-income patients who may rely on transit and have it is possible for Denti-Cal to eliminate its requirements inflexible work hours to make not one, but two visits to for preauthorization altogether. At the September 2015 the dentist. hearing, Delta Dental’s Mr. Ruiz told the Commission, “In the commercial world we don’t require any prior Senator Pan, in a June 2015 conversation with authorizations.” In written testimony, he stated, “Rather, Commission Chair Pedro Nava, said, “On Denti-Cal you we perform an analysis on dentists’ utilization and based take X-rays and tell the patient, ‘Go home. I’ll call you on the outcome, the provider may be placed in what we when I get it approved.’ That’s two visits. They (DHCS refer to as ‘Focused Review.’ When a provider is placed and Delta Dental) think they are reducing fraud, but it on Focused Review, we require additional documentation complicates in both worlds. You have two visits. You may beyond what is normally required, usually additional have brought your child on the bus and you may have radiographs and/or documentation to substantiate the taken off work.” needs for the treatment requested, or to demonstrate Dentists also have traditionally had to send pre-treatment that the service meets our policy and the guidelines X-rays to Denti-Cal for inspection as part of their outlined in our Provider Handbook. Focused review lasts 34 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade DHCS Hasn’t Asked Legislature to Help Erase Regulatory Obstacles The Commission learned during a frank discussion with the department at the September 2015 hearing that many fixes of this scale require changes to state law – but that for years, as discontent with Denti-Cal has grown among providers, recipients and interested parties – the department hasn’t asked the Legislature to make them. An exchange during the hearing between Commission Chairman Pedro Nava and DHCS Deputy Director René Mollow offered insight into lack of progress on concerns that cause dentists not to participate in Denti-Cal: Chair Nava: “As it relates to the regulatory process where you say you can’t just change the rules. You made a reference to that in your testimony. So can you explain to me what it is, how you are in the position where you can’t make the changes that you need?” Deputy Director Mollow: “We can make changes, but we have to go through regulation. So it would be a state law change.” Chair Nava: “That’s my question. So if I have Senator Canella here who wants to know what it is you need to be able to do in order to expedite some of the elements of your program. What does he need to know about what you need to fix so that if I talk to you next year you don’t tell me that we can’t make those changes, because we’re prohibited. What do you need to have different, that is in the purview of the Legislature, that can address some of the testimony that we’ve heard here today. Because I imagine that some of it is federal, but some of it is going to be state.” Deputy Director Mollow: “Yes, there’s some things required by the state law. Part of it would be a consideration regarding administrative flexibility. And so again, our authority today to make programmatic changes, we have to go through a regulatory process. In other program areas we can go through and have administrative processes. So again, we’ll issue, say a provider bulletin, usually it’s a provider bulletin in this arena, followed up by, say, a regulation. That would give us the flexibility to make changes a little bit more quickly. But everything takes time. There are systems and all of that. But that would be one way for us, which for us as we’re making those changes, where we can make those changes, make those policy interpretations through that vehicle, and then follow it up with regulation.” Chair Nava: “I’m going to assume – Senator Canella said he’s been here five years – I’m going to assume that that request has not been made by your department. Have you made requests for legislative changes?” Deputy Director Mollow: “That has not been something we have done.” Chair Nava: “You see, as a former legislator, this where I would say to the department, ‘Where the hell have you been?’ – in a nice way. Because if those are things the Legislature can weigh in – and that’s a political issue, it’s a political leadership issue – the push to make the change, seems to me, ought to come from the department. Because the last thing you want is an uneducated legislator saying they want to fix it. Because then there’s unintended consequences that the Little Hoover Commission has to come back in and look at five years later. So, I’m just suggesting that one of the first things that ought to happen when you leave here is a meeting with whoever you need to meet with in your agency to talk about your legislative package. And then meet with Senator Pan and meet with Assemblymember Wood and meet with Senator Canella and come up with a bipartisan legislative proposal to get into the stuff that can be done. You’re not going to be able to do all of it … But without some movement on the legislative front, you know, you don’t want us coming back and asking you, ‘How come you haven’t done it yet.’’’49 Little Hoover Commission | 35 Fixing Denti-Cal for at least six months, at which time we will re-evaluate The Commission’s September 2015 hearing, which the provider’s utilization of the procedures.” spotlighted widespread frustrations experienced by professionals and beneficiaries who deal with Mr. Ruiz told the Commission that Delta Dental has DHCS, featured extensive DHCS testimony about recommended to DHCS that it adopt a similar approach eventual solutions and new initiatives, but caused for its Denti-Cal program. That has not come to pass. some Commissioners to note a lack of actual concrete In the wake of its study process, the Commission accomplishments being brought to their attention. concludes that recommending a blanket end to treatment Despite expressions by the department representative authorization requests is a question beyond its expertise. that DHCS can and will do better, the DHCS testimony Yet clearly, a high-level overhaul of the department’s and discussion with Commissioners seemed to reinforce processes with X-ray submissions and preauthorization sentiments of witnesses and those making public should remain prominent on the department’s agenda comment: that DHCS appears captured by bureaucracy – and also weigh expert input from a recommended and processes and is unable to advance a convincing new Denti-Cal advisory panel to be discussed later in agenda of change to fix Denti-Cal’s obvious shortcomings this chapter. The California Dental Association told the and their harmful impacts on California’s social fabric. Commission that many dental providers still believe the recent changes are just the beginning of what needs Understandably, given Denti-Cal’s rapidly growing to be done and not the end. And just as clearly, if number of beneficiaries, its circumstances of operating dental providers use the state’s administrative rules and a program with some of the lowest reimbursement rates processes on X-rays and preauthorization as one more in the nation, the necessity of clearing potential changes reason not to participate in Denti-Cal, the greater end with a federal partner and its need for vigilance against result is lack of access to dental care for the ultimate fraud, its staffers might justifiably feel maligned, put upon audience of this program, the beneficiaries who need it. and under constant siege from outsiders. Daily, they must contend with agitated partners greatly alarmed by a growing epidemic of dental decay, needy beneficiaries in pain and made desperate by their inability to obtain Overhaul an Adversarial Culture and dental care and a professional provider class which Sweep Away Outdated Rules has signaled its discontent by largely abandoning the DHCS Concerns About Denti-Cal Fraud are Legitimate Some California dentists do generate income with questionable procedures on Denti-Cal beneficiaries. A May 2015 report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identified questionable billing by 329 California dentists and six orthodontists in 2012. The report stated that Medicaid paid the identified providers $117.5 million for pediatric dental services that year. “Half of the dental providers with questionable billing worked for dental chains,” stated the report. “The majority of those providers worked for five chains, two of which have been the subject of State and Federal investigations. A concentration of providers with questionable billing in chains raises concerns that these chains may be encouraging their providers to perform unnecessary procedures to increase profits.” The report pointed out that questionable billings were not proved to be fraudulent, but raised suspicion by often falling well outside the norm of the number of daily visits and procedures and the amount of payments per child seen. “Our findings raise concerns that certain providers may be billing for services that are not medically necessary or were never provided,” stated the report, which noted that follow-up investigations were continuing and would lead to appropriate action. The Office of Inspector General recommended that DHCS increase its monitoring efforts of dental providers to identify patterns of questionable billing, and particularly, those within dental chains. The department, in a letter to the OIG from Director Jennifer Kent, agreed with the recommendations and outlined several steps to implement increased monitoring.50 36 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade program. One can imagine how the Denti-Cal division, a customer-centric culture change that begins to envision small bit player in the infinitely larger Medi-Cal system, dental providers and non-profit groups more as partners could circle its wagons and simply try to get through and less as outside adversaries. Two issues, unexpected another day within California’s massive state bureaucracy. when the Commission began its review, surfaced repeatedly during two public hearings and exemplified But an adversarial culture has become part of the strains between the department and its dental providers. problem with Denti-Cal. A New Requirement for Advance X-rays Many dentists who participate in a program that pays little for their services told the Commission they feel One issue involved a new rule, proposed to take effect nitpicked by bureaucratic rules and treated by the state in January 2016, to make Registered Dental Hygienist as if they can’t be trusted. “Our members feel they in Alternative Practice (RDHAP) providers obtain X-rays are assumed to be doing bad things and have to prove in advance for Scaling and Root Planing procedures otherwise,” Ms. Short, then-CDA’s director of public performed on institutionalized patients. Advocates policy, testified to the Commission in September 2015. told the Commission the new rules would endanger the health of a largely immobile population that lives The dental profession complained repeatedly to the in skilled nursing facilities and can’t travel to a dentist’s Commission of a regulatory thicket within DHCS that office for X-rays. Members also said the rule change seems to originate with old cases of fraud – and now threatened the existence of a special dental provider constantly perplexes honest operations to protect the classification, largely occupied by women with their own state from fraudulent dental providers. From the depth mobile businesses, created and designed nearly 20 years of these complaints, it seems clear that DHCS could ago to expand dental services to more Denti-Cal-eligible benefit from designating two or three staffers to review patients statewide. Denti-Cal rules and regulations, and in short order recommend sweeping away those that exist simply Department representatives told the Commission it because they exist and ultimately do more harm to seemed unusual to its analysts that among 100,000 beneficiaries than good by driving away providers. Denti-Cal-eligible patients in skilled nursing facilities statewide nearly 88,000 received a Scaling and Root “We encourage the department to walk through all of Planing during the 2013-2014 fiscal year that ended June those rules and figure out how did they come into being? 30, 2014. More, the representatives said, 135 RDHAPs Are they meeting a need for the department? Are they performed two thirds of the procedures statewide, raising simply overly burdensome and causing too much grief to questions about their necessity – and hence the new the providers to participate?” Ms. Short testified during policy requiring X-ray documentation. the September 2015 hearing. She said dental providers understand that some rules exist as a barrier to fraud, Meetings between the department and advocates for but she suggested that a detailed analysis would help RDHAPs – in the wake of repeated public expressions separate those rules that are necessary from those that of concern by RDHAPs during the Commission’s two needlessly complicate business operations and alienate hearings – led the department to suspend the new rule dental professionals from Denti-Cal. while discussions continue on both sides in 2016. The Commission again considers itself lacking in expertise The dental profession and advocates for children and to take a position on an issue that unexpectedly lower-income adults say the department is not good at dominated its public comment sessions. Nonetheless, seeking or considering outside views and makes poor the Commission views the controversy as an example decisions without input from external groups. Some of decision-making conducted inside a relatively closed of these decisions lead to further confusion as dental process – and one that would have ultimately resulted providers and interest groups try to interpret them, and in limiting access to care. It, too, could have greatly also the reasons behind the changes. The department benefited from the guidance of an independent advisory could go a long way to improve relationships with a Little Hoover Commission | 37 Fixing Denti-Cal committee and likely avoided the public dustup that The Commission did not set out when beginning resulted from a unilateral decision. its review to investigate the intricacies of dental surgery rules and again declares its lack of expertise New Limits on Dental Surgery to recommend policy in this arena. However, the Commission saw clearly the vagaries of interpretation A second issue that unexpectedly triggered extensive and the distress caused by a bureaucracy that writes or public comment at Commission hearings involved the attempts to clarify rules without guidance or consult of availability of dental surgery and anesthesia in California. an expert independent advisory board. Surgery centers and the dental surgeons who operate within them essentially represent the end of the line in a Denti-Cal system that failed to provide earlier treatment. Surgeons told the Commission they are increasingly A Denti-Cal Advisory Board restricted in their ability to conduct oral surgery (under During the November 2015 hearing, Dr. Paul Glassman, anesthesia) on children and special needs populations DDS, professor of dental practice at the University of the due to department rules that went into effect on August Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, suggested 21, 2015. the idea of an evidence-based dental-only advisory Advocates for dental surgery said the DHCS rules at best, board to weigh in on such issues just described and are confusing, and require dentists to try an escalating provide outside advice that might prevent the needless range of alternative procedures before surgery – controversies of unilateral decision-making. procedures that dentists, advocates and patients alike Dr. Glassman was asked by Chairman Nava, “Is say are impossible and even life-threatening for children there currently something like that in place at the and special needs patients. The rules have caused some department?” medical insurers – who are paid by Medi-Cal to provide anesthesia for surgeries that are paid by Denti-Cal – “Not that I’m aware of,” he answered. “They have a lot to suspend authorizations for anesthesia, despite the of stakeholder processes, but I don’t think they function fact that anesthesia is clearly allowed. The Commission the way that I’m talking about.” He told the Commission, heard abundant confusion and pleas for help from “The department does a lot of work with stakeholders, parents of special needs children during its public so they have a lot of stakeholder hearings, but those are comment sessions, and also received many emails from generally people lining up at the microphones and talking parents expressing desperation at being unable to find about their issue they think is important. They’re not appropriate dental care for their children. All told the really scientific panels looking at the best evidence for Commission that surgery is the only option for many particular procedures.” special needs, autistic and developmentally-disabled children and adults who are unable to remain calm in a “And it’s not necessarily an integrated part of the dentist’s chair or tolerate procedures while awake. decision-making,” Chairman Nava added. The California Dental Association told the Commission it had warned the department that its policy would “Right” Dr. Glassman answered. be interpreted in a way that caused confusion. The The State of Oregon offers one example with its Health department proceeded with its new policy. The Evidence Review Commission, consisting of 13 members Commission concedes that the department needs rules appointed by the Governor and Senate. The Commission, to prevent excessive reliance on surgery and anesthesia created by the Legislature in 2011, implements a when other options exist, and also concedes that some nearly 30-year-old process in Oregon by which outside dentists referring their patients to surgery centers may experts guide development of health care priorities, not fully document the need. But adding more gray area including those for Medicaid. The Commission reviews to the issue, advocates say that busy referring dentists clinical evidence to produce a prioritized list used by balk at the state’s excessive requirements for paperwork. 38 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade the state Legislature to allocate Medicaid funding in foundation of good customer service. Testimony received Oregon. It also produces evidence-based topics of during the Commission’s two hearings indicates that the interest to Oregon health plans, medical providers and state, through Denti-Cal, is falling short in serving dental the public. Members include five physicians, a dentist, providers and beneficiaries. By most accounts, California public health nurse, behavioral health representative, dentists who compare their Denti-Cal experiences with provider of alternative medicine, retail pharmacist, those of commercial insurers find the state the more insurance industry representative and two consumer difficult partner, still stuck in paper-based processes, a representatives.51 complexity of rules and forms and use of the U.S. Mail. Not only that, the state is less trusting of them than “It seems to me that would be a critically important thing commercial insurers, asking more questions while paying to institute in California,” Dr. Glassman testified. “So you only a fraction of the commercial rate. have evidence, you have rules that are being instituted, not only based on cost considerations, but also based on These aren’t the only reasons that dentists, as well what’s the best way to be able to improve the health of as college professors training the next generation the population and do it at lower cost.” of dentists, talk down Denti-Cal. But they are part of the reason and they are easily fixable. As in While the Oregon Commission covers the entire Recommendation 1 in the previous chapter, fixing spectrum of medical care, the idea could be scaled down Denti-Cal’s administrative barriers to dental provider in California to consider only oral health and advise the participation requires a vison, with targets and 2016 and Denti-Cal bureaucracy. Another example, also being 2017 timetables. It is time to get started. considered in Oregon, is the Nevada Advisory Committee on the State Program for Oral Health. That panel, too, was created by the Nevada Legislature in 2011 and includes 13 members appointed by the administrator of Key Short-Term Goals to Meet Utilization the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health. Its Target members, who advise the state oral health program, include public healthcare professionals and educators, Recommendation 2: the Department of Health oral healthcare providers and national dental and other Care Services should simplify the denti-cal oral health organizations and their local or state chapter.52 provider enrollment forms and put them online in 2017. Commission Chair Nava discussed the idea with DHCS Director Jennifer Kent and department executives in Department of Health Care Services officials say they January 2016, but found little enthusiasm. Director Kent are in final review of plans to refine and shorten the said informally that the department does not like having Denti-Cal enrollment form from 34 pages to 10. The forced stakeholder advisory bodies, and added, “We Commission commends this action and urges the have all kinds of advisory bodies.” That might be the Legislature to oversee its progress and keep it moving appropriate response for a successful program with good forward through the process of feedback from dental relations with its partners. Denti-Cal does not fall into providers and department partners. The Commission that category. also recommends that the state go further and facilitate Denti-Cal enrollment via an online application far sooner than the department’s current estimated timetable of two to three years. Waiting up to three years to bring Customer-Centered Targets for Denti-Cal the department’s enrollment process up to the online standards of commercial insurers will further bewilder Denti-Cal’s chief customers – its 13 million or more a dental provider community that publicly called on beneficiaries statewide – need DHCS and dental care the department to do online enrollment in 2008. The providers to improve their relationships. In any sector, Commission recommends that the Legislature and private or public, good relationships are built on a Little Hoover Commission | 39 Fixing Denti-Cal Governor see that it is done in 2017. mentality” and tone down the antagonism that seems to have become quite routine between it and providers and Recommendation 3: the Department of Health others. Care Services should overhaul the process of treatment authorization requests. Recommendation 5: the Department of Health Care Services should purge outdated  The department should reassess its policies regulations. using metrics that consider foremost the highest impacts on beneficiaries and their needs rather  The department should appoint a small number than the lowest behavior of a few providers. of staffers to spend eight to 10 weeks during 2016 to review rules and clear out needless  The department should consult with an regulatory clutter. evidence-based advisory board during this reassessment.  The Legislature should assess department progress through an oversight hearing or through budget hearings. The Department of Health Care Services has made small, tentative moves toward easing concerns of dental providers over the need to routinely mail in X-rays with Department of Health Care Services partners, including their claims for reimbursement. But questions remain the California Dental Association, say many Denti-Cal about what procedures should require preauthorization rules were designed to combat particular episodes of from Denti-Cal before being conducted. Hearing fraud and have outlived themselves. While originally witnesses told the Commission that commercial well-intended, some now have a larger negative impact insurers do not routinely require X-rays or authorization of discouraging dental provider participation due to their in advance for routine dental work such as crowns, impediments. Denti-Cal beneficiaries suffer the most root canals and periodontal (gum) treatment. The harm when dentists balk at providing them care due to Commission heard anecdotally that fraud rates are likely outdated and frustrating department rules. no different for Denti-Cal than commercial insurance, and Recommendation 6: the Legislature and accordingly, recommends a high-level department review Governor should enact and sign legislation in of its preauthorization policies. The department’s review, 2016 to create an evidence-based advisory group guided by an evidence-based advisory body, should focus for the Denti-Cal program. foremost on the needs of beneficiaries rather than the current near-singular focus on fraud.  The Governor and Legislature should Recommendation 4: the Department of Health appoint dental experts in early 2017 to guide Care Services should implement a customer- development of Denti-Cal priorities and oversee focused program to improve relationships with policy decisions. its providers.  The Department of Health Care Services should The Department of Health Care Services admittedly begin to consult with the Denti-Cal advisory has a very difficult job to implement Denti-Cal for a board in early 2017. growing population while paying low reimbursement rates dictated by the Legislature. But for the good of the Californians it serves, it simply must develop better day-to-day relationships with dental providers. The The Department of Health Care Services has much work department should initiate customer-service-focused to do retool its Denti-Cal program to win over more processes in 2016 to develop a stronger “partner providers and provide greater access to dental care 40 | www.lhc.ca.gov A Customer-Centered Upgrade statewide. Denti-Cal should be guided by an evidence-based advisory group, which consists of the state dental director and expert specialists who can weigh in on proposed decisions and make sure they are based on the best evidence and science and not merely on cost. This would be especially helpful to minimize the continual strife, confusion and even alleged harm to beneficiaries, including special needs populations, that the Commission heard about repeatedly in public comment during its two hearings. Recommendation 7: the Legislature and Governor should fund a statewide expansion of teledentistry and the virtual dental home.  The Legislature should pass and the Governor should sign AB 648 (Low). Californians have pioneered a simple technological solution – teledentistry – to better connect dentists and people in the neighborhoods where they live. The concept of a dental assistant with a laptop, digital camera and hand-held X-ray machine doing dental care under the supervision of a distant dentist who can review medical histories and X-rays from another computer and prescribe treatment should play a significant new role within the Denti-Cal system. In 2015, the Legislature considered AB 648 (Low) to allocate $3 million to scale up the Virtual Dental Home concept statewide in the wake of a successful pilot demonstration project. The bill, currently stalled short of a full Senate vote, should be passed and forwarded to the Governor for signing. Little Hoover Commission | 41 Fixing Denti-Cal A New Direction Toward Prevention inadequate resources on the expensive and growing need for restorative care and pays little attention to “To a large extent, improving oral health the reasons the need exists. Denti-Cal, the Commission requires individuals and families to engage agreed, needs a massive, visionary reorientation toward in healthy habits such as appropriate feeding prevention of tooth decay, particularly among the state’s and eating habits, daily tooth brushing with youngest children and pregnant women. Currently, the a toothpaste containing fluoride and regular state invests 14 percent of its $1.3 billion budget on dental visits.” low-cost preventative visits, while spending 84 percent Dr. Jayanth Kumar, DDS, State Dental Director. for high-cost visits to drill, fill, pull teeth and do root Commission testimony, September 2015. canals and crowns.53 Without increased emphasis on preventative care, Denti-Cal is doomed to a permanent emergency of fixing millions of bad teeth with insufficient Californians who live quietly with aching, rotting or funding – and continually being hauled before the missing teeth, the millions who do not yet understand Legislature to explain its lack of progress. This massive how their diets and habits may speed the ruin of their shift will not be easy. It will take time and powerful mouths and those of their children, need a game changer partners and a keen eye on what, in government and from forces more powerful than themselves. Troubling politics, is called “the art of the possible.” But doing so oral health conditions experienced by the state’s large will pay significant dividends for California’s quality of life and growing Medi-Cal population run deeper than and eventually in controlling healthcare spending. low reimbursement rates and old-fashioned paper- based administrative systems described during the “Dentistry is about Commission’s first hearing – and in Chapter Two – that prevention in order to avoid drive away and alienate thousands of potential Denti-Cal costly intervention at a later providers. Fixing those simple shortcomings should be day. Why don’t we have relatively easy, and with continuing advocacy inside the payment options that reflect department and beyond, could happen in the short run. this philosophy?” Beyond these fixes the Commission suggests that the Assemblymember Jim entire state Medicaid dental system, as well as the Wood, DDS. Testimony at the efforts of funders and advocates for health and people Commission’s September 2015 hearing. of modest means, also needs to be reconsidered and steered in a new direction. The current system provides extensive care statewide, but still falls short for millions The Commission heard numerous ideas during its of people desperate for care and fails to adequately fulfill November 19, 2015, hearing to reorient both the Denti- its role as a safety net. It is clear to the Commission that Cal funding stream and the efforts of many oral health a deeper systemic issue makes Denti-Cal such a low- care partners in a preventative-oriented direction. quality experience and unending oral health disaster: Commissioners found encouragement in an emerging the program is so besieged with the state’s dental health consensus on ways to begin and sustain such a shift – crisis that it can’t recalculate priorities to improve and learned that much is already being done inside and long-term outcomes. Denti-Cal focuses nearly all its beyond California. It heard about promising results in 42 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention Washington and Texas that turned consistently poor repeatedly emphasized the importance of taking dental outcomes – similar to those in California – into enviable care into underserved areas rather than expecting national successes. Witnesses described the success beneficiaries to call, make appointments and show up of a long-standing pilot project that attracted dentists at a dentist’s office that may be miles from their homes. to deliver preventative care to children in Alameda The high no-show rates among Denti-Cal patients that so County. Others from regions with no Denti-Cal providers greatly frustrate dental providers back up this contention. told the Commission about recruiting pediatricians to Finally, in the wake of its hearings, the Commission provide preventative care during well-child visits. The learned more about two additional and highly promising Commission also learned about cost-effective managed developments: a $740 million state and federal initiative care-style approaches to preventative oral care used by to focus on preventative dental care for children and Federally Qualified Health Centers throughout California. young adults in California, and a 10-year, prevention- Similarly, the Commission heard how Texas shifted from focused state oral health plan being crafted by California’s a perpetually struggling and unsuccessful fee-for-service new state dental director and scheduled to be unveiled in model to a managed care approach that emphasizes June 2016. prevention and cost savings – and easily attracts dental providers. This collective consensus expressed by providers and other experts during the Commission’s study process, The Denti-Cal system is based on traditional and particularly, during its November 2015, hearing falls broadly into five categories: “dental insurance” systems with an emphasis on volume-based reimbursement with the  If you can’t raise reimbursement rates across the best reimbursement provided for the most board, try smaller, targeted hikes. complex treatment, needed after disease has progressed, rather than an emphasis  Steer greater resources to preventative care, especially for children. on reaching people early and preventing the development of disease or for other  Take dental care to where people are. Go mobile. interventions most likely to create a healthy Go to the schools. population at the lowest cost.”  Use new video technology to connect people to Dr. Paul Glassman, DDS. Professor of Dental Care, care. Director of the Pacific Center for Special Care,  Build a more coordinated dental care-delivery University of the Pacific. Testimony at the November system that emphasizes regular visits and 2015 hearing. improved oral health habits. Add case management services to make sure people make and keep appointments. It works. The Commission learned, as well, that California is becoming a leader in teledentistry, also known as the Virtual Dental Home, which employs mobile camera Promising: The Department’s New phones, mobile X-ray units and the Internet to connect Five-Year Experiment in Preventative Care patients via onsite dental assistants and dentists at remote office locations. This easily enables a dental As the Commission conducted its 2015 review, DHCS professional with a car and mobile digital equipment to engaged in a parallel track toward its own combined visit Denti-Cal beneficiaries in community settings such federal-state initiative to incentivize preventative care. as school sites and neighborhood centers to conduct The department announced its new program at year’s routine exams, cleanings and simple procedures that free end in 2015, six weeks after the Commission concluded up dental offices for more complicated work. Experts its study process. During its review, the Commission Little Hoover Commission | 43 Fixing Denti-Cal received only the barest details regarding the $740 the State Plan,” a description of the initiative million five-year initiative approved and partially funded states. Dentists will receive the two annual by the federal government to expand preventative care payments only after they see the number of new with a variety of new test incentives and programs. This or extra patients determined by the state to be initiative, backed by a large influx of state and federal their share of a countywide number needed funding, represents a groundbreaking opportunity to to increase child preventative dental visits by begin addressing a long-neglected need in California. 10 percentage points over five years. The two Though the particulars crafted by the department and annual payments will represent the equivalent of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a largely a 75 percent increase in reimbursement for the internal negotiation reflect little of the specific consensus new or extra patients seen. for preventative care solutions expressed by Commission  Paying dentists to create individualized witnesses the Commission understands that the federal treatment plans for high-risk children. The state government largely controls negotiations for such a large will establish pilot programs in a few selected initiative. The state, however, should use the initiative’s counties and recruit dentists to create powerful momentum and potential flexibility to partner long-term treatment plans for children under with providers and advocacy groups for fresh approaches six who are considered likely to develop serious and maximum benefit. dental problems due to their economic and The new DHCS financial incentives aim to spur an home life circumstances. Dentists will receive increase of 10 percentage points in the number of payments for four annual office visits from children and young adults up to age 21 visiting the dentist high-risk children, three visits for moderate-risk annually – and will test whether California dentists will children and two for low-risk children. These increase their participation in Denti-Cal. No one knows preventative visits will include exams, fluoride how these targeted incentives will work with a profession varnish and sealants and nutritional counseling. that expressed such deep wariness of the department The department will monitor the outcomes to during the Commission study process. Nonetheless, see if they reduce the number of emergency many, including the California Dental Association, cited room visits and need for surgery under general the incentives as refreshing evidence of the state and anesthesia. federal government combining efforts to prioritize dental  Incentives to keep seeing the same children over care and put a new focus on prevention. five years. The state will make annual incentive The initiative has four components: payments to dentists who continue to see the same child year in and out. The annual incentive  Targeted incentives for dentists to see more payment will rise with each additional year the children. The department plans to make two dentist sees a child patient. The department annual incentive payments to dentists who begin plans to begin the program as a pilot in several offering preventative care visits to counties and will implement it statewide if results Denti-Cal-eligible children aged one through are promising. 20 or expand the number of children receiving such visits in their offices. This is different from  Funding for local pilot programs. The state will the financial incentives used in Washington approve up to 15 local pilot programs, largely in State and Alameda County, where dentists rural areas, that implement in their own ways simply receive higher or “enhanced” individual some or all of the other ideas just described. The payments each time they see children up to age department aims to implement successful pilot six for preventative or restorative care visits. programs statewide. This funding can represent California’s new incentives “are not considered no more than 25 percent of the entire $740 direct reimbursement for dental services under million. 44 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention The Commission, like many who participate in or convened by the California Department of Public Health monitor California’s oral health landscape, views the to write a 10-year prevention strategy for Californians. increased funding and targeted incentives positively. Members include California representatives of But it is concerned that the infrequency of the incentive Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal, dental schools, dental payments and the fact that they will greatly lag the professional associations, children’s health advocates, occurrence of the appointments may deter dental First 5 commissions and county health officials, many of providers, who mostly operate as small businesses, from whom also provided insight and testimony to the Little participating. It remains possible that in five years results Hoover Commission in its 2015-2016 Denti-Cal review. of the experiment will remain mixed and represent five Dr. Kumar told Commission staff in February 2016 that more years of missed opportunity to make more than the oral health plan will focus on five areas and contain a minimal improvements. While the state’s direction for two-year implementation plan to get it moving quickly in preventative dental care for children is now finalized and conjunction with the new Denti-Cal targeted initiatives. could represent the state’s likely direction for the next The goals: five years, department representatives told Commission staff there are opportunities for some of the ideas  Improving oral health by addressing factors and suggested during the November 2015 hearing to become conditions that drive tooth decay locally and department-funded pilot projects and potentially be concentrating on community-level intervention. expanded statewide.  Better aligning dental health programs at all The Commission contends that two programs in levels of government and beyond to get more particular, each with demonstrated success, represent people into early treatment and preventative good candidates for pilot project funding and further care. experimentation in California. The State of Washington through its Access to Baby and Child Dentistry Program  Building infrastructure and expanding capacity to (ABCD) and Alameda County through its Healthy Kids, do both of the above. Healthy Teeth initiative have shown that dental providers will treat children and provide early preventative care if  Building systems to gather data that can focus they are financially incentivized to do so, receive training efforts and set targets. (Dr. Kumar, as well as in treating young children and are part of a system of others, cited a troubling lack of data to quantify outreach efforts and comprehensive case management the state’s oral health crisis). that guides people through the system and ensures  Building a communications strategy to get out they show up for appointments. Both programs will be the word about proper oral health care. described shortly in this chapter. Dr. Kumar said a particular audience is parents of children five and under, who will hear about healthier habits for Also Promising: A New their children, including avoidance of bottles at bedtime. Prevention-Focused State Oral Health The Commission, too, views this oral health plan as a Plan significant opportunity to build a coordinated statewide prevention movement, one that links government A state oral health plan scheduled for release in June resources and leadership with the considerable finances 2016 promises to add more weight to the case for and talent available and willing within California’s preventing tooth decay to lower demand for expensive private- and non-profit sectors. publicly-financed dental care. State Dental Director Dr. Jayanth Kumar, DDS, appointed by Governor Brown to the Especially promising within the plan is a communications new post in August 2015, has spent months consulting strategy. Those who see conditions on the ground told with a 53-member Oral Health Advisory Committee the Commission that tooth decay has become a problem Little Hoover Commission | 45 Fixing Denti-Cal requiring the urgency of yesteryear’s anti-tobacco underscored by the experiences of the Sonoma County campaigns. Many said that funders statewide should dental surgery center noted earlier in this report: There, consider promoting a powerful multilingual and a typical case is a child, three and a half years old, with 10 multicultural media campaign to relentlessly drive home to 18 cavities. a message that helps parents take steps to prevent dental “We’ve been fairly successful in getting kids into care. problems for their children. Suggestions for funding It has not been easy and it has taken awhile,” Laura sources included the California First 5 Commission, which Smith, president and chief executive officer of the has a multimillion-dollar communications budget from Washington Dental Service Foundation, which manages Proposition 10 tobacco taxes to finance early childhood the Washington State Access to Baby and Child Dentistry development messaging campaigns. First 5 staff told (ABCD) program, testified to the Commission in Little Hoover Commission staff in early 2016 that it is not November 2015. “Still, 50 percent of kids aren’t getting interested in veering from its current $67 million three-year media campaign to talk, read and sing to babies in the interest of early brain development. The Two Key Tools of Preventative That leaves a variety of local, regional and statewide Care foundations, including county First 5 commissions, as potential funding sources. The Ad Council has already Fluoride Varnish created a shelf-ready bilingual campaign of TV, radio and Fluoride varnish, a topical dental applicant to print media ads, as well as cartoons and Web apps. The prevent tooth decay, is applied to the surface of media should prioritize use of this no-cost ad material. teeth. After using gauze to clean and dry the teeth, Additional financing also is needed to put the word out a specialist paints the varnish onto the teeth with in a major new way on social and traditional media, a small brush. The varnish is sticky, and becomes billboards, buses and other public spaces. hardened to teeth when it comes in contact with saliva. Varnish prevents new cavities and decay by entering the tooth enamel to make the tooth hard. Targeted Reimbursement Hikes I: The varnish application process takes less than two Washington’s Access to Baby and Child minutes. Studies show that children who receive Dentistry Program varnish applications every three months have fewer cavities than those who receive it less often or not Targeted reimbursement rate hikes that incentivize at all. specific goals generate positive outcomes, as the Commission learned from experiences in Washington Dental Sealant State and Alameda County. Washington stands out as a national model that California can imitate in recruiting Dental sealant is a plastic material usually applied dentists to see young Medicaid-eligible children and to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth, and acts getting those children in for annual checkups. In the as a barrier to prevent cavities where decay occurs mid-1990s only 21 percent of Medicaid-eligible children most often. Sealants shield these vulnerable teeth in Washington aged five and under visited the dentist by “sealing out” food and plaque. Sealant can be yearly. The state has since increased that percentage to applied easily by dentists, who paint it directly onto 51 percent, quadrupling the number of dental visits and tooth enamel. The plastic resin hardens, bonding outperforming the commercial insurance sector for the into the grooves and depressions of the back teeth same age group.54 Washington State now leads the U.S. chewing surfaces. Sealants may last for several in utilization of its Medicaid Dental program by young years before a reapplication is needed. Dentists can children.55 check the status of sealants during regular dental visits, and reapply when necessary.56 The importance of reaching this young population is 46 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention care. We still keep working on it,” she added. rates paid by Washington’s Medicaid dental program to dentists who treat Medicaid-enrolled children up Ms. Smith called the Washington experience a hard to age five. Dentists who participate in ABCD receive climb out of conditions much like those that still exist in fees up to 60 percent higher than the state’s standard California. “Everyone knew the barriers,” she told the reimbursement. “In 2014, ABCD-certified providers Commission. “We had lower reimbursement rates and received $6 million in enhanced reimbursement through administrative hurdles. The dentists didn’t understand a state/federal 50:50 match,” Ms. Smith testified to the who the population is and didn’t want them in their Commission. offices.” She said Spokane County in eastern Washington sparked the turnaround in the mid-1990s with a pilot Such targeted incentives to reach a specific population project that identified barriers to care and systematically represent an alternative to across-the-board addressed each of them. In written testimony, Ms. Smith reimbursement rate hikes to dentists that the Governor stated: and Legislature have been reluctant to grant in California. “There was recognition that early “To ensure sustainability after the start- treatment, by the children’s first birthday, up period, careful attention was paid to was necessary for prevention. The engaging all of the required resources (the traditional timeline of a first dental visit health department, the local dental society, by age 3 or 4 was too late – the cavity an initial cadre of participating dentists, a process was well underway by then. coalition that would guide and promote the Establishing good oral habits early in program, and the backing of community life could mean better oral health for leaders). Gaining support from local dentists a lifetime. Their goals were to engage and dental societies was key to beginning the more dental offices in serving young local process. Recruiting general dentists to low-income children and connect with the ABCD Program began with the support families and motivate them to bring their and assistance of the local dental society, young children for care.” which sponsored an initial ABCD informational Spokane County’s ability to demonstrate results led meeting between local dentists and ABCD the Washington Dental Service Foundation to offer state dental leadership and subsequently $3.14 million in three-year startup grants to counties promoted the program to the membership. to replicate the program statewide. The grants and “Public and private health and human the collective efforts of governments and interest services leaders in the county or region would groups moved the ABCD program for children into all then team up with these dentists and WDS of Washington’s 39 counties during a 15-year period Foundation’s state-level ABCD staff to plan for spanning from 1999 to 2014. The ABCD program also and troubleshoot the program rollout. Each has established cores of financial supporters at the local county was encouraged to tailor the program level who supplement efforts of the state Medicaid to fit its needs, culture, and circumstances. As dental program. Among them are county health a result, not all local programs look exactly departments, local foundations, dental societies, the alike and may differ in the organizations United Way, private donors and fund-raising efforts, Ms. designated to execute the program and Smith testified. She told the Commission at its November the community-based organizations that hearing the ABCD program also is partially funded with participate.” federal money. Laura Smith. November 2015 Commission hearing. Why Dentists Participate in ABCD Written Testimony. Key to the program is the enhanced reimbursement Little Hoover Commission | 47 Fixing Denti-Cal “A small raise in overall rates won’t necessarily help. It’s Why Families Participate about incentivizing what you want to see,” Ms. Smith The ABCD program also addresses two of the chronic said. problems of Medicaid dental programs nationally – Beyond the increased fees are additional benefits to families not being aware their children need care and the dentists: An active public-private partnership that high no-show rate for appointments among participants. includes state government, dental societies, dentists, Ms. Smith told the Commission that ABCD embeds itself the University of Washington School of Dentistry and into local communities by establishing ABCD coordinators local health departments provides dentists training in in county health departments who work with community treating young children, offers billing assistance to their organizations that work with the Medicaid population. office staffs, helps reduce no-shows and places a “dental Those organizations “carry the message of early dental champion” in each county to assist providers. The state visits and refer them to the ABCD coordinator for also fixed some of the administrative problems that connection to a participating dentist,” she said. “The discourage dentists in California from participating. ABCD program has been embedded in many local Head Washington dentists enroll in the ABCD program online Start, Early Head Start, and Women, Infant and Children in contrast to California’s slower paper-based process to (WIC) Nutrition programs, which enroll and orient their enroll in Denti-Cal. “On the payment side they redid the clients, and at the same time, help achieve the agency’s claims processing system in 2008-09,” Ms. Smith told the client oral health objectives. The coordinator also talks Commission. “The payment process is easy and about through the flow of a visit and establishes norms for the as good as commercial.” She said payment also is quick. visit,” Ms. Smith testified. “Paying claims takes about a week, same as commercial Ms. Smith told the Commission that families also receive insurance.” coaching about dental office etiquette, including the Ms. Smith said the relative ease of the ABCD program for need to keep appointments. “The local programs work dentists has the added benefit of bringing more dentists with ABCD families who have difficulty keeping dental into the larger Medicaid dental system. “Dentists first appointments, assuring that obstacles to care, such participate in ABCD and that’s an entry into the Medicaid as lack of transportation and language barriers, are population,” she said. “ABCD becomes the door they addressed,” she testified. walk through to participate in the program.” The Preventatitive Edge The ABCD program is unique, finally, for steering Other ABCD Outcomes  ABCD patients are more likely to seek care before oral health problems arise.  Providers who have received ABCD training and participate in the program are more comfortable seeing young children and have a highly favorable view of the program.  Peer-reviewed national publications have demonstrated that early prevention can substantially reduce future dental care costs and that ABCD is cost-effective method of improving oral health status of Medicaid-insured young children. Early intervention saves money for families, taxpayers and employers.  The Smile Survey, the every five year assessment of children’s oral health from Washington State, found that untreated decay was cut in half between 2005 and 2010, from 26% of low-income young children with untreated decay to 13 percent. Young children who are free of dental pain miss less school and are more ready to learn.57 48 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention enhanced funding to dentists to do preventative Alameda County launched Healthy Kids, Healthy Teeth education for families in their offices and to pediatricians (HKHT) in 2003 as a demonstration project, modeled on to do oral checkups of their young patients during regular Washington’s ABDC program, to improve care for the well-child visits. In 2014, dentists who participate in ABCD county’s youngest Denti-Cal-eligible children. Begun received a new benefit worth $2.8 million statewide to with leadership from the then California Department of educate their child patients and families about taking Health Services and a grant from the federal Health Care good care of their teeth. California dentists do not Financing Administration (later renamed the Centers for have the option of billing Denti-Cal for preventative Medicare & Medicaid Services), it, too, is a systematic education. Ms. Smith told the Commission that the approach that has produced dramatic improvements Washington Dental Service Foundation in 2008 won in the numbers of Medicaid-eligible children receiving legislative approval to reimburse primary care physicians dental care. at the enhanced ABCD rate for delivering oral health Approximately 70 percent of eligible children below preventative services during children’s regular checkups. age five participate and make regular dental visits, Those services include screening, risk assessment, family program founder Dr. Jared Fine testified at the November education, fluoride varnish and referral to a dentist if 2015 hearing. That compares with 20 percent more necessary, she testified. She stated that more than 45 than a decade ago, he said. The program features a percent of Washington’s practicing pediatricians and small targeted incentive - $20 paid by the county – to family practice physicians have been trained and certified supplement the standard Denti-Cal reimbursement rate to do the oral health preventative services. for two annual oral exams, fluoride varnish and dietary Washington’s ABCD program has earned repeated and educational counseling to parents. The county national honors for its innovation and positive outcomes, stepped in with the financial incentive after the state according to written testimony provided by Ms. Smith proved unable to do so, Dr. Fine told the Commission. in November 2015. Backers of the program in California “The original intent was that, just as was done in include the California Dental Association, the trade Washington, reimbursement rates would be raised for association for 26,000 dentists, and a pair of influential several common children’s dental procedures,” said Dr. children’s advocacy organizations, Children Now and the Robert Isman, DDS, a former DHCS staffer who worked Children’s Partnership. It is easy to presume widespread with Dr. Fine to establish the HKHT program. The state comprehensive support among these and other interests planned to fund the enhanced targeted reimbursements for trying such an approach in California and replicating it to dentists, he said. “At the time the grant proposal statewide. Ms. Smith’s testimony at the November 2015 was written, California had a $12 billion budget surplus, hearing provided ample evidence that Medicaid dental but by the time the grant was awarded, the surplus programs can move off traditional reactive approaches had turned into a $12 billion deficit. Thus it became and successfully intervene earlier in the lives of its impossible to provide the rate increases the original young beneficiaries. Washington State also proves that proposal had envisioned,” he told the Commission.58 dentists will participate in a comprehensive system that rewards them financially and assists them in caring for a Dr. Fine told the Commission that continued county challenging population. The outcomes of Washington’s general fund support, as well as direct federal Medicaid ABCD program persuaded Alameda County 13 years ago funding to the program, has helped Alameda County to try something similar. It, too, succeeded. continue the targeted incentive program for preventative care beyond the initial startup phase funded by the federal grant more than a decade ago. Targeted Reimbursement Hikes II: “The idea was to increase access to care for children and Alameda County’s Healthy Kids, Healthy infants. We need to go toward that in California,” said Dr. Teeth Fine, who retired in 2014 as dental health administrator Little Hoover Commission | 49 Fixing Denti-Cal for the Alameda County Public Health Department. He he said. Much like Washington’s ABDC program, the said the $20 targeted rate reimbursement authorized by program recruits dentists and provides training in treating the state for Alameda County, “is designed to incentivize young children. Participating dentists learn about child dentists to go to kids and treat kids. This is important management, caries risk assessment, family education, because we do have benefits from preventative use of preventative agents such as fluoride varnish, and successes. We can prevent disease over time.” also billings and claims processing. The alternative, he testified, is documented in the Alameda County workers, meanwhile, conduct aggressive findings of Alameda County’s 2005 Oral Needs outreach programs to enroll children and make sure Assessment conducted among public school students. they get to their office visits. Dr. Fine testified that the The survey found that “by kindergarten 30 percent of all county makes numerous presentations to community students had untreated decay. It also documented that organizations that work with the Medi-Cal-eligible students from low-income families had nearly twice the population to get children into HKHT and ultimately, into level of untreated dental decay and only half the benefit dental offices. Those locations include Head Start and of preventive dental sealants as compared to their early Head Start, preschools, Women, Infant and Children counterparts from more affluent families.” offices, community clinics, Medi-Cal enrollment offices, childcare centers and programs targeted to high-risk families. “As the Dental Health Administrator of the Alameda County Public Health Department Once enrolled, he testified, community health outreach for nearly 40 years, I was confronted by the workers who mirror the language and culture of enrollees day in and day out experience of attempting visit them in person or call to stress the importance to address the epidemic level of dental disease of dental visits and expectations to get regular care. in our young children and their families - from These workers also help families deal with language the toddlers who waited months for treatment barriers, link them with participating dental providers under general anesthesia in the operating and help them get to their appointments if they have room because they were too young to be able transportation issues. Dr. Fine’s testimony reemphasized tolerate treatment for extensive dental decay to the Commission the value of comprehensive in an office setting, to tooth-decay-ravaged coordination, systematic case management and kindergarteners too embarrassed to smile, education to make sure beneficiaries understand the to elementary school students who were benefits for which they are eligible, get enrolled and mysteriously disruptive only to be relieved make their appointments. when their dental conditions were discovered and the source of unrelenting dental pain Dr. Isman told the Commission that in 2007 a State Action treated.” Plan Committee within DHCS proposed replicating the success of Healthy Kids, Healthy Teeth with a new pilot Dr. Jared Fine. Former Dental Health Administrator. project that would expand the concept to five additional Alameda County Health Care Services Agency California counties. The department didn’t act on the proposal, however. Given the continued inability of the Denti-Cal program to adequately meet children’s needs Plenty of Participating Dentists Backed by – and the availability of fresh funding for pilot projects in Aggressive Outreach the new DHCS and CMS preventative care initiative – the In great contrast to the lack of dentists to treat Denti-Cal time may be ripe to reconsider an expansion of HKHT well patients statewide, the HKHT program has expanded its beyond Alameda County. pool of local providers who provide preventative care to children, Dr. Fine told the Commission. “The county pays those fees and we have as many dentists as we want,” 50 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention The Emergence of Teledentistry “We don’t have a problem with no shows. We California, more than most states, is moving toward a are delivering care in places where people new model of care that incorporates video technology are.” to examine more people outside the usual confines of a dentist’s office. This technology may enable an approach Dr. Paul Glassman, DDS. Professor of Dental Care, in California that begins to resemble the better qualities Director of the Pacific Center for Special Care, of managed care – that is, spending for prevention rather University of the Pacific. Testimony at the November than for the endless high cost of fixing teeth. 2015 hearing. Dr. Glassman told the Commission in November 2015 Dr. Paul Glassman, a professor of dental practice and about a teledentistry initiative, Virtual Dental Home, Director of Community Oral Health at the being pioneered by his university’s dental school. The San Francisco-based Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry at the University of the Pacific, told the Commission that University of the Pacific’s initiative takes dental hygienists teledentistry can help reorient Denti-Cal, which he said and dental assistants out of the office and into the field is “organized with an emphasis on providing complex to examine people where they are – in schools, Head treatment which is needed after disease has progressed, Start centers, community centers and long-term care rather than an emphasis on reaching people early and centers. Dental assistants under the supervision of a preventing the development of disease.” As noted distant dentist arrive with a portable dental chair, laptop previously, that kind of cost management philosophy computer, digital camera and hand-held X-ray machine to is the bedrock of managed care, and highlights an do exams, take X-rays and pictures, create dental charts alternative way of bringing managed care-style benefits and collect dental and medical histories. They upload to Denti-Cal while not converting the current fee-for- it all onto a secure website, where a dentist, perhaps service system into a managed care system statewide. hundreds of miles away, can review it and prescribe a treatment plan. Dental assistants and hygienists then do much of the work, such as simple fillings, cleaning “The Denti-Cal system is organized to and scaling, applying fluoride varnish or sealants and emphasize treatment services provided in providing education about prevention. For more dental offices and clinics. Unfortunately the complicated work they refer patients to dentists, who majority of Denti-Cal eligible people face get patients who are already examined and diagnosed significant barriers that keep them from with a treatment plan. As Dr. Glassman explained to the accessing services in offices and clinics and Commission, “Around two-thirds of people can be kept therefore do not receive services. Barriers healthy in community sites by the services provided there include the limited number of providers willing by dental hygienists, and most of the remaining one- to see people covered by Denti-Cal, location of third who have advanced problems can be helped to get dental offices and clinics in relation to where treatment in dental offices and clinics.”59 people live, hours that offices and clinics are open, cultural and language barriers, and This sounds relatively simple. But it required the 2014 challenges that people in low-wage jobs have passage of AB 1174 (Bocanegra and Logue) to enable getting time off work to take themselves or dental assistants and dentists to bill Denti-Cal for their their children to dental appointments.” work while using teledentistry. Previous state law allowed Denti-Cal to pay only for face-to-face diagnosis Dr. Paul Glassman, DDS. Professor of Dental Care, and treatment. The new law enabled a July 1, 2015, Director of the Pacific Center for Special Care, DHCS directive allowing many dental providers to bill University of the Pacific. Testimony at the November Denti-Cal for teledentistry care.60 So far, the concept is 2015 hearing. largely considered a pilot project, supported by grants Little Hoover Commission | 51 Fixing Denti-Cal A Denti-Cal Alternative: Federally Qualified Health Centers Many people in California – especially those with “bare bones” Denti-Cal coverage with private dentists – don’t realize they may have a better alternative at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The FQHC designation refers to more than 1,000 California health clinics and systems that operate in underserved, low-income and uninsured communities that private-practice dentists tend to avoid. These nonprofit clinics also receive far higher dental care reimbursement rates from Medi-Cal than those that Denti-Cal provides to private dentists. This special designation and higher reimbursement rates has created a separate – and by many accounts, more comprehensive and superior – dental provider model for low-income Californians. DHCS records indicate that FQHCs provide approximately one-third of Medi-Cal dental care to adults and children in California – $374 million worth in 2014. The FQHCs of California provide more than two million dental visits each year.62 The federal government picks up nearly all the cost of this FQHC-provided dental care – driving federal dollars to account for more than 60 percent of Denti-Cal’s annual $1.3 billion budget. The origins of these FQHCs are in President Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s-era War on Poverty. The federal government, mindful of states that would provide the least amount of health care possible, established a “federal funding model that bypassed state interference.” This fully-funded medical care model (that includes dental) supplements the shortcomings of state-run programs in poor communities. All clinics are nonprofit and run by local boards “to ensure responsiveness to community needs.”63 Largest among California FQHCs is AltaMed, which operates 43 sites that provide medical and dental care to thousands of low-income adults and children in Los Angeles and Orange counties. (AltaMed’s medical staff includes 27 dentists and 93 dental staffers. The dental staff examines and treats approximately 96,000 people yearly). Dr. Rosa Arzu, DDS, dental director at AltaMed, testified to the Commission in November 2015 that Medi-Cal, and not Denti-Cal, provides AltaMed a fixed amount of reimbursement per dental visit – typically about $200 – which enables AltaMed to bypass Denti-Cal’s much-criticized enrollment forms, billing issues and advance permissions to provide many dental treatments. The Commission learned from Dr. Arzu’s testimony that AltaMed (which reported revenues of $376 million in its fiscal year ending April 2014) dental care can be provided efficiently, holistically – and at lower long-term cost – within the FQHC model. Essentially, AltaMed receives the same approximate $200 reimbursement per visit, whether the visit is for a low-cost preventative exam and fluoride varnish or for an expensive four-hour restorative procedure. Much like managed care, the system incentivizes AltaMed to prevent dental problems that can cause it long-term financial losses. This is in contrast to Denti-Cal’s standard fee-for-service system, which incentivizes participating dentists to do high-reimbursement procedures and minimize low-value preventative visits. One partial solution to the Denti-Cal problem may include promoting FQHCs as a preferred center for dental care for millions of eligible beneficiaries. The centers are more likely to concentrate on preventative care and also more likely than traditional dental providers to go into community and neighborhood centers to provide care. This option also has cost advantages for the state as the federal government pays nearly all the cost of preventative and restorative care for Denti-Cal-eligible residents. Given the comprehensive system of dental care provided by FQHCs, Commission staff asked AltaMed representatives why struggling Denti-Cal beneficiaries would go through the well-documented trouble of trying to find a fee-for-service dentist who accepts Denti-Cal and may want only to do high-cost restorative procedures instead of preventative care. The answer was surprisingly simple and indicative of a larger need to help beneficiaries understand their options: “They don’t know about it.” 52 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention and foundations to provide dental services to about 3,000 through 2012, told the Commission. “There was more people at 50 sites in 13 communities. preventative care. And less invasive services.” He told the Commission that dental managed care cut Texas Medicaid In 2015, lawmakers also expenses by 30 percent – approximately $1.5 billion in its considered AB 648 (Low) to allocate first three years. $3 million in state funds to scale up the Virtual Dental Home concept The November 2015 hearing provided the Commission statewide. That bill passed the a first opportunity to consider the managed care model Assembly and cleared its Senate or approach as a possible fix or alternative to the current committees only to be placed on the Denti-Cal system, which was widely acknowledged Senate inactive file near the end of Assemblymember as “broken” during the first hearing. Though the the 2015 legislative session.61 The Evan Low Commission is not making recommendations to Commission recommends passage encourage the expansion of managed care within the of the bill or similar legislative vehicle in 2016 and a state’s Denti-Cal program, the emphasis on prevention signature from Governor Brown. now to save money later is impressive. It also stands in contrast to the state’s current Denti-Cal fee-for-service All encouragement should go to this method of delivering system, which is stuck in a cycle of treating high-cost care in community settings such as schools, Head Start problems that it doesn’t prevent. and Women, Infant and Children centers, which to date reports few incidences of “no shows.” Teledentistry and California has two regional pilot managed care programs a host of other developing technologies promises to play for Denti-Cal, one in Sacramento County that is a major role in proposals to reorient Denti-Cal care for mandatory for Denti-Cal patients, and one in Los Angeles a new generation. It will help shift a system that simply County, which is optional. Both started in the mid-1990s fixes expensive problems to one that slowly gets ahead and had relatively rough starts and poor track records in of problems and ramps up a more cost-effective and getting children into dentist offices for checkups, which smarter focus on preventative care for the long term. has discouraged talk of their possible expansion to other counties or statewide.64 But managed care plans in both counties have made advances in raising child utilization rates in recent years – and helped more children who Scrapping What Doesn’t Work and need care under general anesthesia. Sacramento Starting Fresh: The Texas Experiment County dentists also typically receive 10 percent higher Texas, population 27 million, is another large state that reimbursement under managed care than other dentists has struggled to mount an effective Medicaid dental in California. program in its major urban areas and vast expanses Dentists, however, who typically own their own of rural countryside. As in California, low provider businesses, have traditionally opposed alternatives to reimbursement rates and cumbersome administrative the straight fee-for-service model that has long been the hurdles combined to discourage dental providers from backbone of dentistry.65 As noted in Chapter One the participating. The Commission learned at its November California Dental Association has called on the state to 2015 hearing how Texas in 2012 scrapped its end dental managed care in Sacramento County. In its fee-for-service Medicaid dental care system – under preference for a fee-for-service model of care, the dental orders from the Texas Legislature the previous year profession is a throwback to the medical profession – and turned the program over to three commercial which operated similarly until adapting to a managed health plans and a managed care approach. “Two things care system. Less than a decade ago in May 2007, the happened,” Billy Millwee, a managing principal for Little Hoover Commission, in A Smarter Way to Care: the consulting firm Sellers Dorsey, who spent 20 years Transforming Medi-Cal for the Future, urged the state with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to transition to a managed care approach for its large and served as Texas Medicaid Director from 2009 Little Hoover Commission | 53 Fixing Denti-Cal Medi-Cal population, which was then tied to a costly, Mr. Millwee told the Commission that he came to believe overburdened fee-for-service system. The Commission’s in 2010 there was a better way than fee-for-service, report noted at the time that the Medi-Cal program publicly-financed dental care in Texas. The state at the “lacks a system or a structure to measure whether its time contracted with a private sector claims administrator outlays improve the health outcomes of enrollees.” The to run the program with no state dental staff to oversee it same could easily be said today of the state’s Denti- or steer policies. During that time the Texas Commission Cal program – especially in light of the managed care also endured a funding scandal in which providers billed approach now institutionalized within Medi-Cal and and the claims administrator routinely approved a great also for new enrollees under Covered California and the expansion in expensive orthodontic care, which cost Affordable Care Act. taxpayers millions of dollars and fueled a backlash against When There Are No Denti-Cal Providers: Recruiting Pediatricians in Amador County Amador County, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento, is a quiet landscape of cattle ranches, family wineries and small Gold Rush tourist towns. Among its 36,500 residents, settled mostly around the county seat of Jackson, there is not a single dentist who accepts Denti-Cal. (Trinity, Sierra, Alpine and Inyo counties similarly have none).67 Dentists cite the same reasons as many of their counterparts in urban areas: low reimbursement rates and difficult state administrative processes, said Commission witness Nina Machado, a long-time public health specialist in the county. She is executive director of First 5 Amador, one of many local California commissions funded by tobacco tax revenue from 1998’s Proposition 10. “What they tell me is that they would prefer to do it for free,” Ms. Machado said. Given the lack of options for the county’s Denti-Cal-eligible residents, First 5 Amador and a county oral health task force of school nurses, dental hygienists and county health officials stepped into the vacuum with a unique pilot program launched in January 2015. It is recruiting county medical doctors to do dental exams and apply fluoride treatment to area children – and showing doctors how to bill California’s Medi-Cal program for $18 to $30 as part of routine well-child exams. Ms. Machado has teamed with Sutter Amador Pediatrics’ Dr. David J. Stone and supervising nurse Mindy Epperson, who collectively told the Commission in November 2015 that pediatricians did more than 1,000 flouride varnish treatments in the first eight months of the program. It is considered a first-of-its-kind pilot project in California, a state where pediatricians have sometimes considered oral exams and fluoride varnish application too time-consuming and not their responsibility, even though they can be reimbursed by the state for providing it. Fortunately, California pediatricians are increasingly likely to begin doing so. Recommendations published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in September 2015 advised pediatricians to add fluoride varnish to their list of tasks during 10 well-child visits from the age of six months to age five.68 “We did not step on the toes of dentists in Amador County,” Ms. Epperson told the Commission. “We never tell people we are their dental home. We are not. We are part of prevention.” Advocates for children’s dental care told Commission staff they hope more pediatricians and primary care doctors begin to perform oral health screenings and fluoride varnish applications – because parents with Medi-Cal coverage are far more likely to take their children to the doctor than to the dentist. Medical doctors also are generally seen as strong authority figures during well-child visits, Ms. Machado told the Commission. “When doctors say something people really pay attention.” 54 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention the state dental program.66 participating dentists happier, he said. Some receive more than the standard Medicaid rate for some services. Claims processing has improved, with bills paid in seven “There are all kinds of things you can do to 10 days. Enrollment forms to become a Medicaid that you can’t do in a state program. The dental provider are online and up to commercial state in a fee-for-service kind of model is standards. constrained with a one-size-fits-all model. I have to do the same thing in Dallas as in I do Nationally, managed care remains the exception rather in Muleshoe. They’ve got to be the same, but than the rule for states with Medicaid dental programs. the community is very, very different. When But experts, including November 2015 witness Dr. Paul you’re operating a Medicaid dental program Glassman told Commissioners they believe the under a federal waiver you have a lot of long-range direction and trend for Medicaid dental opportunities to do things differently that are programs, including California, points toward managed more appropriately designed for a community. care. In Texas, the model continues to hold its ground. You can target recruitment efforts, have “There’s been no march on the Capitol to change it,” Mr. differential reimbursement rates, cater Millwee said. services to a specific community or region, develop innovative programs.” Billy Millwee, managing principal for Sellers Dorsey. Conclusion and Recommendations: Ideas Testimony at the Commission’s November 2015 for the Long Run hearing. Throughout its Denti-Cal review the Commission heard that rotting teeth and gum disease is almost entirely Mr. Millwee told the Commission how he slowly preventable, indeed, one of the most preventable of overcame the Texas Dental Association’s traditional diseases. Healthier habits and diets, fewer sugary drinks resistance to managed care by listening to its members’ and regular checkups can lead to a lifetime without pain concerns and collaboratively designing a program that or headaches, without missing school and work or ever addressed those concerns. He also was able to persuade rushing to the emergency room on a weekend. And yet them of the potential benefits. “They like the idea of dental disease is not being prevented for many among a dental product with metrics and quality control,” he the 13 million or more Californians eligible for Denti-Cal. said. “People liked that and how it competes on metrics The Golden State, said so many Commission witnesses of preventative services and getting kids to do checkups. and sources who see it day in and out, is a landscape We did none of that with fee-for-service.” Mr. Millwee of growing, not receding dental illness. People are not said the collaboration continued while designing the new getting the message. They don’t know the impact of program’s initial Request for Proposals and ultimately, their habits on themselves and their children. They learn its contracts with Delta Dental, DentaQuest and MCNA too late, when their toddlers need dental surgery, that Dental. (Delta Dental eventually dropped out of the this could easily have been prevented. And so it goes program). The entire process of consulting with dentists, with Denti-Cal, overwhelmed by demand, and unable writing an RFP and contracts and signing up health plans until perhaps now to steer its financial resources toward took about a year, he said. greater preventative care and slow the trajectory of rising The directive today to the participating health plans demand for restorative care. in Texas is relatively simple: “You have to cover dental The Commission contends, in the wake of its review, benefits, but how you cover it is up to you,” said Mr. that with one-third of the state’s population and Millwee. That has led to greater creativity, more cost one-half of its children eligible for Denti-Cal, and controls and better data about outcomes, he said. While their well-documented lack of access to care, other not attracting a groundswell of new dentists it made Little Hoover Commission | 55 Fixing Denti-Cal significant players including foundations, universities, the dental profession to the lay population, has been advocacy groups and private and non-profit health dental health happens when you pick up a phone, you care organizations also need to step in and assume call, make an appointment and you go to a dental office. stronger leadership roles. California needs a massive Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen for way too many new emphasis on curbing and preventing an epidemic of people. Now we have more structures, ideas and a long dental disease that a majority of people with commercial demonstration that can actually do things in a different dental insurance seldom see. Without it, Denti-Cal’s way, that’s more effective in getting to people, getting woes will continue to be simply the symptom of a far to them early and creating health, actually at a lower larger problem playing out in hundreds of thousands, if cost.” The Commission expresses its optimism regarding not millions of households, in California. prospects for success. Two major new state government initiatives, a five-year $740 million preventative care agenda, and a prevention- Key Long-Term Goals to Meet Utilization focused 10-year state oral health plan to debut in June 2016, will likely set the tone for a new direction. Target It is critical that the state exercise the best possible Recommendation 8: state government, funders leadership in implementing both. It also is critical that and non-profits should lead a sustained others beyond government step in to fill the vacuums statewide “game changer” to reorient the oral that will remain, to seed the new ideas, encourage the health care system for identical beneficiaries experiments and fund those with promise. toward preventative care. The Commission offers the following additional recommendations, recognizing that not one big solution,  A coalition of public, private and non-profit but many, at all levels of government, in every county and organizations and funders, such as the region, will help improve the oral health of this eligible California Healthcare Foundation, California population, and consequently, that of California as a Endowment, California Dental Association, whole. The Commission learned during its review that California First 5 Commission and its county there is no shortage of people who want to help. There commissions, among others, should powerfully is no shortage of ideas. Even within the Department of address the need for a more coordinated, Health Care Services there is movement, as evidenced by comprehensive statewide system of small improvements to address administrative roadblocks preventative care. and the larger vision of a well-funded initiative to incentivize preventative care. At her January 20, 2016,  Others beyond state government, including confirmation hearing before the Senate Rules Committee, universities, medical societies and foundations Director Jennifer Kent, appointed by Governor Brown on should convene a symposium to discuss January 26, 2015, said, “I feel better about the program and plan a way forward, then make it their today than the day I started. But I wouldn’t say that it’s continuing responsibility to help fund and settled by any stretch of the imagination, but I think sustain a permanent emphasis on preventative we’re in progress and I feel good about that.” care. As the Commission’s second and final hearing neared its  Funders, celebrities, communicators, advocates end in November 2015, Dr. Paul Glassman, University of and media firms should participate in a major the Pacific dental professor, addressed the Commission statewide messaging campaign to educate with a parting thought about what is possible in families and children about healthy teeth California. “We have an opportunity to really rethink habits. how we deliver oral health to the population,” he said. “The idea in the past, really for everyone from 56 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention The rapid increase of Denti-Cal beneficiaries in recent Teeth concept is ripe for expansion and testing beyond years combined with some of the nation’s lowest Alameda County. A pilot project, if successful, could reimbursement rates for participating dentists has left demonstrate anew the ability of incentives to motivate the Denti-Cal program increasingly unable to contend dentists’ participation, especially when backed with with an overload of dental disease. With only 14 percent training and assistance for dentists, and an extensive of its annual budget allocated to prevention, Denti-Cal is case management system that conducts outreach at the likewise unable to stem the rising damage of poor dental community level to get eligible patients appointments health among its eligible population. The growing oral with dentists and keep them. A pilot program will health crisis among Californians who lack commercial ideally feature networks of private, non-profit and public dental insurance coverage is a larger responsibility partners such as dental associations, medical schools, than the state’s alone. A large, powerful coalition foundations and health agencies to fund and maintain will be necessary to steer Denti-Cal funding toward these comprehensive outreach and case management preventative care, and especially recognize the power efforts. of case management in connecting a large vulnerable Recommendation 10: the Department of Health population to dentists and making sure people show up Care Services and California counties should for appointments. Two powerful initiatives within the steer more Denti-Cal-eligible patients into Department of Health Care Services and Department of Federally Qualified Health Centers with capacity Public Health are launching momentum in a preventative to see them. direction. Others beyond state government must build upon it and sustain this forward direction.  The Department of Health Care Services should Recommendation 9: the Legislature and include contact information for Federally Department of Health Care Services should Qualified Health Centers on its referral lists of expand the concepts of Washington State’s dentists. Access to Baby and Child Dentistry program and Alameda County’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Teeth  Counties should train eligibility workers to program to more regions of California. advise use of Federally Qualified Health Centers for dental care where appropriate.  The Department of Health Care Services and  Federally Qualified Health Centers with high the Legislature should actively encourage and demand for dental services and limited capacity help establish pilot projects based on these should expand use of teledentistry options concepts with the potential of expanding them to provide preventative care in community statewide. locations and free up capacity for more  The Legislature should assess department and intensive dental care in their offices and clinics. pilot project progress.  Foundations and medical societies should consider funding targeted messaging or advertising campaigns to raise awareness A new state and federal initiative to fund targeted that Denti-Cal benefits can be used at nearby incentives for dentists who care for Denti-Cal-eligible Federally Qualified Health Centers. children provides great opportunity to expand preventative care to children five and under through programs with demonstrated successes in Alameda County and Washington State. With $185 million California’s more than 1,000 Federally Qualified Health available in a federal-state fund for preventative dental Centers (FQHC) have integrated preventative care into care pilot projects during the next five years, the Access their daily appointments in ways that largely do not occur to Baby and Child Dentistry and Healthy Kids Healthy in private dentist offices. Their reimbursement stream Little Hoover Commission | 57 Fixing Denti-Cal incentivizes FQHCs to prioritize low-cost preventative to recruit and train pediatricians to do dental exams, visits to minimize the high expenses and potential apply fluoride treatment as part of well-child visits and financial losses of restorative care. The incentive for bill Medi-Cal for reimbursement. This program is a private dentists is just the opposite, often prioritizing critical piece of the safety net in Amador County, where high-cost restorative care to make worthwhile the a visit to a dental office that accepts Denti-Cal might be low reimbursement rates paid by Denti-Cal. Given as much as 60 miles away. Pediatricians did more than that the federal government provides much higher 1,000 flouride treatments in the first eight months of reimbursement to dentists at FQHCs and pays nearly the program in 2015, and serve as an example to other the entire cost of these reimbursements, the state and counties in similar straits. A major statewide initiative on its partners alike would be wise to encourage the most preventative care for children requires small programs people possible to receive care at a FQHC. Most FQHCs and pediatricians everywhere to do what can be done. In are located in neighborhoods that private dentists tend 2015 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advised to avoid, but many people who live near one don’t know pediatricians to add fluoride varnish to their list of tasks that they provide dental care. The California Primary during well-child visits from the age of six months to age Care Association has invested in a CaliforniaHealthPlus five. Just as the state needs more initiatives like those in branding campaign to promote FQHC services, including Amador County, more pediatricians statewide need to dental, but lacks funds for the necessary scale of add this small preventative task to their well-child visits statewide advertising. Funders and medical societies for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. should consider ways to help. These federal facilities should become an even stronger part of the dental care safety net in California. The Commission’s Study Process Recommendation 11: medical societies and This study represents the newest and third review of non-profit organizations should recruit more California’s Medi-Cal system since 2007. The review pediatricians to provide preventative dental played out against a backdrop of frustration expressed checkups during well-child visits. by many beneficiaries, providers and oral health care advocates with Denti-Cal rules, processes and fresh limits  The California chapters of the American on care, especially in the realm of dental surgery. The Academy of Pediatrics should lead in study also took place while the state’s Medicaid dental encouraging its members to perform program solicited proposals from major dental insurers preventative dental exams and apply fluoride to restructure its financial and outreach processes varnish to Denti-Cal-eligible children. and negotiated with the federal government for new experimental incentives to increase preventative care.  County First 5 Commissions statewide should While the insurers continue discussions with Denti-Cal work to reinforce the message locally with regarding its request for proposals, the agreement pediatricians and primary care doctors. reached with the federal government for a $740 million, five-year incentive program occurred after  Senator and pediatrician Richard Pan should the Commission concluded its public process. The write to pediatricians statewide stressing the Commission had no opportunity to review direction of importance and benefits of this practice. the incentive program in a public process. In framing its study the Commission deliberately avoided Representatives of Amador County have provided proposals made by the dental community for an California a model that offers basic preventative dental across-the-board hike in reimbursement rates. As stated care to children in rural counties that have few or no earlier in this report, that is a political, rather than a Denti-Cal providers. With a small start-up grant from governing issue. The Commission instead reviewed Sutter Medical Group, the county established a program 58 | www.lhc.ca.gov A New Direction Towards Prevention and identified potential solutions for immediate state into the public health system and emerging trends in administrative issues and processes that frustrate dental care. Many more parents and caregivers wrote dentists, and also focused on larger directional change to the Commission or took time off work and traveled to a preventative system for millions of Denti-Cal-eligible to Sacramento to provide public comment about the Californians. impacts of Denti-Cal deficiencies on real lives. For that the Commission is most grateful. All gave generously of The Commission initiated its Denti-Cal study in their time, providing great benefit to the Commission. September 2015. The findings and recommendations The findings and recommendations in in the report, presented in this report are based on oral and written however, are the Commission’s own. testimony presented during two public hearings, extensive Commission staff research and interviews with more than 50 experts and representatives of groups interested in California’s Medicaid dental program. The Commission’s first hearing on September 24, 2015, provided an overview of a taxpayer-supported safety net program for dental care that is encountering serious difficulties in getting dentists to provide care and beneficiaries to use their benefits. State lawmakers and partners from the dental community and children’s health advocacy groups described administrative and financial deficiencies in the Denti-Cal program that discourage dentists from participating and result in widespread lack of access to care in a large eligible population. Denti-Cal administrators also described efforts to improve the program’s relations with dentists and raise the number of beneficiaries making regular dental visists. A second hearing on November 19, 2015, addressed the limited preventative care provided by the Denti-Cal program and reviewed best practices that get children into care before their teeth become an emergency situation. Experts testified about numerous potential approaches to reorient Denti-Cal’s singular emphasis on funding expensive restorative procedures toward more cost-effective preventative care for the long haul in California. Public hearing witnesses are listed in the appendices. Throughout this study the Commission staff received much valuable input from experts throughout California on the daily realities dentists face in their offices, the difficulties faced by people of limited means to make and keep appointments, the widespread dislike that dental providers have for state bureaucratic processes and the legal, moral and financial implications of inadequate dental care. Others provided valuable insight Little Hoover Commission | 59 Fixing Denti-Cal Appendices Public Hearing Witnesses September 24, 2015 Dr. John Blake, Executive Director, Children’s Dental Dr. Richard Pan, California State Senator Health Clinic Brianna Pittman, Legislative Director, California Dental Jenny Kattlove, Senior Director, Programs, The Association Children’s Partnership Joe Ruiz, Vice President of State Government Dr. Jayanth V. Kumar, California State Dental Director, Programs, Delta Dental of California Department of Public Health Nicette Short, Director of Public Policy, California René Mollow, Deputy Director of Health Care Benefits Dental Association and Eligibility, Department of Health Care Services Jim Wood, California State Assemblymember November 19, 2015 Dr. Rosa Arzu, Dental Director, AltaMed Health Services Nina Machado, Executive Director, First 5 Amador Mindy Epperson, RN Site Supervisor, Sutter Amador Billy Millwee, Former Texas Medicaid Director, 2009- Pediatrics Center 2012, and Senior Strategic Advisor, Sellers Dorsey Dr. Jared Fine, Former Dental Health Administrator, Sean South, Associate Director of Policy & Legislation, Alameda County Public Health Department California Primary Care Association Dr. Paul Glassman, Professor of Dental Practice and Dr. David J. Stone, Pediatrician, Sutter Amador Director of Community Oral Health, University of the Pediatrics Center Pacific School of Dentistry 60 | www.lhc.ca.gov Notes Notes March 15, 2016. 13 Scott Graves. Director of Research. The California Budget & 1 Assemblymember Jim Wood, DDS. California State Policy Center. January 23, 2015. “California Budget Bites. Medi- Assembly. Sacramento, CA. September 24, 2015. Little Hoover Cal and the Governor’s Proposed 2015-16 Budget: Health Care Commission. Hearing. Reform Boosts Enrollment and Federal Funding.” Sacramento, 2 Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for CA. http://calbudgetcenter.org/blog/medi-cal-and-the- Medicare & Medicaid Services. December 30, 2015. “California governors-proposed-2015-16-budget-health-care-reform- Medi-Cal 20-20 Demonstration.” Page 69. Washington, D.C. On boosts-enrollment-and-federal-funding. Accessed August 31, file. 2015. 3 Carolyn Brookins. Legislative Coordinator. Department of 14 The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Health Care Services. Sacramento, CA. February 12, 2016. May 2015. “Medicaid at 50.” Pages 1, 7, 8, 19, 20. Washington, Written Communication. On file. D.C. http://files.kff.org/attachment/report-medicaid-at-50. Also “State Health Facts. Total Medicaid Spending.” http:// 4 Health Policy Institute. American Dental Association. 2013. kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/total-medicaid-spending. “The Oral Health Care System. A State-by-State Analysis.” Page Accessed February 5, 2016. 26. Washington, D.C. http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/ Science%20and%20Research/HPI/OralHealthCare-StateFacts/ 15 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office Oral-Health-Care-System-Full-Report.pdf. Accessed February 3, of Inspector General. January 2016. “Most Children with 2016. Medicaid in Four States are not Receiving Required Dental Services.” Page 2. Washington, D.C. http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/ 5 Health Policy Institute. See Endnote 4. reports/oei-02-14-00490.pdf. Accessed February 3. 2016. 6 Carolyn Brookins. See Endnote 3. 16 Sandra R. Hernández, President & Chief Executive Officer. California Health Care Foundation. July 15, 2015. “Medi-Cal 7 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. “State Health Facts. Comes to Main Street.” Sacramento, CA. http://www.chcf.org/ Professionally Active Dentists.” Washington, D.C. http://kff.org/ articles/2015/07/medical-comes-main-street#ixzz3ijkaPIkY. other/state-indicator/total-dentists. Accessed July 29, 2015. Also, Legislative Analyst Office. July 9, 2015. “Medi-Cal: Overview and Payment Issues.” Sacramento, CA. Pages 2, 4, 8 Senator Richard Pan. California State Senate. Sacramento, 5. http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/health/2015/Medi-Cal- CA. June 23, 2015. Personal communication. Overview-and-Payment-Issues-070915.pdf. Accessed August 9 Health Policy Institute. See Endnote 4. (The nine states 26, 2015. and districts with dentist participation rates between 20 17 California Department of Health Care Services. percent and 30 percent include California, District of Columbia, Sacramento, CA. September 24, 2015. “Department of Health Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Care Services Data.” Written testimony. Carolina, Ohio and Washington). 18 Joe Ruiz. Vice President. State Government Programs. 10 Conrado E. Bárzaga, M.D. Executive Director. The Center Delta Dental of California. Sacramento, CA. September 24, for Oral Health. Pomona, CA. September 24, 2015. Little 2015. Written testimony. Hoover Commission. Public comment. Sacramento, CA. Also, Viveka Rydell. Chief Executive Officer. PDI Surgery Center. 19 Joe Ruiz. See Endnote 18. Sonoma, CA. Personal Communication. 20 California State Auditor. See Endnote 12. 11 August 8, 2013, letter from Senators Bill Emmerson and Mark DeSaulnier to Asemblymember Adam Gray, Chair, Joint 21 Western Dental. News Release. November 16, 2015. Legislative Audit Committee. Also, California State Auditor. “Western Dental Opening New Facility in Oakland, Accepting December 2014. “California Department of Health Care Denti-Cal Patients.” Orange, CA. http://www.businesswire. Services. Weaknesses in its Medi-Cal Dental Program Limit com/news/home/20151116006363/en/Western-Dental- Children’s Access to Dental Care.” Report 2013-125. Pages Opening-Facility-Oakland-Accepting-Denti-Cal. Accessed 1-4. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2013-125.pdf. December 21, 2015. Accessed September 4, 2015. 22 Western Dental. News Release. January 29, 2016. 12 California State Auditor. “Report 2013-125 “Western Dental Continues as State Leader; Accepting Recommendations.” Pages 2-3. Sacramento, CA. https://www. Denti-Cal Patients at All Locations.” Orange, CA. http:// auditor.ca.gov/reports/recommendations/2013-125. Accessed Little Hoover Commission | 61 Fixing Denti-Cal www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/western-dental- November 2, 2015. continues-as-state-leader-accepting-denti-cal-patients-at-all- locations-300212188.html. Accessed February 2, 2016. 34 Jondi Gumz. The Santa Cruz Sentinel. June 1, 2015. “Fewer dentists in private practice accept Denti-Cal patients.” 23 California Department of Health Care Services. See Santa Cruz, CA. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ Endnote 17. health/20150601/fewer-dentists-in-private-practice-accept- new-denti-cal-patients. Accessed August 31, 2015. 24 Jocelyn Wiener. April 14, 2013. California Healthcare Foundation Center for Health Reporting. The Sacramento Bee. 35 Moody’s Investor Services. May 8, 2015. “Rating “Dental program for poor children improving.” Sacramento, Action: Moody’s downgrades Premier Dental’s (parent of CA. http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/family/ Western Dental) CFR to Caa1 from B3; outlook negative.” New article2577198.html. Accessed November 2, 2015. York, N.Y. https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-down- grades-Premier-Dentals-parent-of-Western-Dental-CFR-to- 25 John J. Carvelli. Executive Vice President. Liberty Dental -PR_324586?WT.mc_id=AM~WWFob29fRmluYW5jZV9TQl- Plan. Irvine, CA. June 18, 2016. Personal communication. 9SYXRpbmcgTmV3c19BbGxfRW5n~20150508_PR_324586. Accessed August 31, 2015. 26 David Gorn. June 25, 2015. California Healthline. “Dental Managed Care Takes a New Tack.” Sacramento, CA. http:// 36 Western Dental. See Endnote 21. www.californiahealthline.org/capitol-desk/2015/6/dental- managed-care-takes-a-new-tack. Accessed November 2, 2015. 37 Department of Health Care Services. July 1, 2015. “Medi- Cal Dental Services Rate Review.” Page 5. Sacramento, CA. 27 The California Dental Association. January 25, 2016. News http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Documents/2015_Dental-Services- Release. “CDA Urges State to Eliminate Sacramento’s Failed Rate-Review.pdf. Also: AB 82. June 13, 2013. Office of Dental Pilot Program.” Sacramento, CA. http://www.cda.org/ Senate Floor Analysis. “Budget Act of 2013: Health.” Page Portals/0/press/pr_0116_dental_pilot_program.pdf. Accessed 5. http://lisprdweblb.calegis.net:7010/LISWeb/faces/ February 2, 2016. bills/billdetail.xhtml. California Department of Finance. June 2015. “California State Budget - 2015-16. Health and 28 Moira Kenney. Executive Director. First 5 Association of Human Services.” Sacramento, CA. Page 26. http://www. California. March 17, 2015. Testimony to Joint Legislative ebudget.ca.gov/2015-16/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/ Audit Committee, Assembly Committee on Health, Senate HealthandHumanServices.pdf. Committee on Health. Sacramento, CA. 38 Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. 29 Children & Families Commission of Orange County. National Health Law Program. Civil Rights Education and February 2015. Policy Brief. “Children’s Oral Health in Orange Enforcement Center. December 15, 2015. Administrative County.” Santa Ana, CA. On file. Complaint. “Inadequate Access to Health Care Violates Latino 30 Barbara Aved Associates. December 2015. “Sacramento Civil Rights in California’s Medi-Cal Program.” Los Angeles, children and dental care. Better served than 5 years ago?” CA. http://www.seiu-uhw.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/166/ Sacramento, CA. Page 4. On file. files/2015/12/CivilRightsComplaint_Text_12.15.15.pdf. Accessed December 29, 2015. 31 Dr. Jared Fine. Former Dental Health Administrator. Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. Oakland, CA. 39 Dr. Paul Glassman, DDS. Professor of Dental Practice. November 19, 2015. Written testimony to the Commission. Director, Pacific Center for Special Care. University of the Pacific. Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. San Francisco, 32 David Satcher, MD, Ph.D. United States Surgeon General. CA. August 19, 2015. Letter to the Commission. http://www. National Institute of Dental and Cranofacial Research. “First lhc.ca.gov/studies/activestudies/denti-cal/Sept2015Hearing/ Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health.” 2000. Executive Public%20Comments/UOPSchoolofDentistry.pdf. Accessed Summary. Pages 1-5. Washington, D.C. http://www.nidcr.nih. December 28, 2015. gov/DataStatistics/SurgeonGeneral/Documents/hck1ocv.@ www.surgeon.fullrpt.pdf Accessed February 29, 2016. 40 UCare. February 2015. “Summary of UCare Dental Benefits.” On file. 33 Andrew Snyder and Keerti Kanchinadam. National Academy for State Health Policy. July 2015. “Adult Dental 41 Iowa Department of Public Health. December 2008. Benefits in Medicaid: Recent Experiences from Seven “Inside I-Smile: A Look at Iowa’s Dental Home Initiative for States.” Page 13. Portland, Maine. http://www.nashp. Children.” http://www.idph.state.ia.us/IDPHChannelsService/ org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Adult-Dental-Benefits-in- file.ashx?file=DAC3576F-0B60-43FB-AE21-BBF0F7BFAA25. Medicaid-Recent-Experiences-from-Seven-States.pdf. Accessed Accessed October 16, 2015. Also, Tracy Rodgers. May 13, 2015. 62 | www.lhc.ca.gov Notes “I-Smile partnership is making a difference.” Children’s Dental Services. Office of Inspector General. May 2015. OEI-02-14- Health Project. Susan Tucker. https://www.cdhp.org/blog/360- 00480. “Questionable Billing for Medicaid Pediatric Dental i-smile-partnership-is-making-a-difference. Accessed October Services in California.” Pages 8-13, 16-17. Washington, D.C. 16, 2015. http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-14-00480.pdf. Accessed January 8, 2016. 42 Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. November 2010. “Overview: Loan Repayment Programs.” On file. 51 Health Evidence Review Commission. “About Us.” Salem, Texas Medical Association. “Agreement in Principle: Frew v. OR. http://www.oregon.gov/oha/herc/pages/index.aspx. Hawkins.” http://www.texmed.org/template.aspx?id=5748. Accessed February 8, 2016. Accessed October 16, 2015. Also: Kamyar Nassah, Ph.D., Marko Vujicic, Ph.D. and Cassandra Yarbrough, M.P.P. October 52 2011 Nevada Revised Statues. Chapter 439 – 2014. “A Ten-Year, State-by-State, Analysis of Medicaid Fee- Administration of Public Health. NRS 439.2792. Carson City, NV. for-Service Reimbursement Rates for Dental Care Services.” http://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/2010/title40/chapter439/ American Dental Association. http://www.ada.org/~/media/ nrs439-2792.html. Accessed February 8, 2016. ADA/Science%20and%20Research/HPI/Files/HPIBrief_1014_3. 53 Conrado E. Bárzaga, M.D. Executive Director. The Center ashx. Accessed October 16, 2015. for Oral Health. September 2015. “Denti-Cal and the Wisdom 43 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. January Tooth(less): A Deeper Drill at a Complex Problem.” Pomona, 2011. “Innovative State Practices for Improving The Provision CA. Page 2. http://www.centerfororalhealth.org/images/ of Medicaid Dental Services.” http://www.medicaid.gov/ issuebriefs/DentiCalBrief_09232015.pdf. Accessed February 17, medicaid-chip-program-information/by-topics/benefits/ 2016. downloads/8statedentalreview.pdf. Accessed October 19, 2015. 54 Laura Smith. President and CEO. Washington Dental 44 State of Maryland. “Dental Action Plan Template For Service Foundation. “Washington State’s Access to Baby and Medicaid and CHIP Programs.” http://www.medicaid.gov/ Child Dentistry Program.” On file. medicaid-chip-program-information/by-topics/benefits/ 55 Laura Smith. President and CEO. Washington Dental downloads/sohap-maryland.pdf. Accessed October 15, 2015. Service Foundation. Seattle, WA. November 19, 2015. Written 45 Connecticut Dental Health Partnership. January 2014. testimony. “Connecticut Dental Health Partnership Fact Sheet.” https:// 56 New York Department of Health. November 2009. www.ctdhp.com/documents/69-%20CTDHP%20Fact%20 “Fluoride Varnish – Frequently Asked Questions.” https://www. Sheet%20-%20General%202014.pdf. Accessed October 16, health.ny.gov/prevention/dental/fluoride_varnish_faq.htm. 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015. Also: American Dental Association. 46 Kamyar Nassah, Ph.D., Marko Vujicic, Ph.D. and Cassandra 2014. “Sealants.” http://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az- Yarbrough, M.P.P. October 2014. “A Ten-Year, State-by-State, topics/s/sealants. Accessed October 20, 2015. Analysis of Medicaid Fee-for-Service Reimbursement Rates for 57 Laura Smith. See Endnote 55. Dental Care Services.” American Dental Association. http:// www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Science%20and%20Research/HPI/ 58 Dr. Robert Isman, DDS. Former California State Dental Files/HPIBrief_1014_3.ashx. Accessed October 16, 2015. Director. Former Dental Program Consultant, Department of Health Care Services. Sacramento, CA. December 8, 2015. 47 Carolyn Brookins. Legislative Coordinator. Department Written communication. On file. of Health Care Services. Sacramento, CA. February 8, 2016. Written Communication. On file. 59 Dr. Paul Glassman. See Endnote 39. August letter to Commission. 48 Carolyn Brookins. Legislative Coordinator. Department of Health Care Services. Sacramento, CA. February 4, 2016. 60 California Department of Health Care Services. Denti- Written Communication. On file Cal Bulletin. Volume 31, Number 15. October 2015. “Teledentistry.” http://www.denti-cal.ca.gov/provsrvcs/ 49 September 24, 2015, hearing. California Channel. Recent bulletins/Volume_31_Number_15.pdf. Accessed October 26, Archives. (Minutes 115-118). http://calchannel.granicus. 2015. com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=3232. Accessed December 30, 2015. 61 Legislative Information System. 2015. “Health Care Access Demonstration Project Grants: Virtual Dental Home Program.” 50 Suzanne Murrin. Deputy Inspector General for Evaluation AB 648 (Low). Sacramento, CA. http://lisprdweblb.calegis. and Inspections. The Department of Health and Human net:7010/LISWeb/faces/bills/billhistory.xhtml. Accessed Little Hoover Commission | 63 Fixing Denti-Cal October 26, 2015. 62 Sean South. Associate Director of Policy and Legislation. California Primary Care Association. Sacramento, CA. November 19, 2015. Written testimony. 63 Julia Goebel. February 8, 2013. “A Brief History of Federally Qualified Health Centers.” Notifymd.com. Northbrook, Illinois. http://www.notifymd.com/a-brief-history- of-federally-qualified-health-centers-fqhc. Accessed October 29, 2015. 64 Jocelyn Wiener. See Endnote 24. 65 David Gorn. June 25, 2015. California Healthline. “Dental Managed Care Takes a New Tack.” Sacramento, CA. http:// www.californiahealthline.org/capitol-desk/2015/6/dental- managed-care-takes-a-new-tack. Accessed November 2, 2015. 66 WFAA News 8. August 25, 2011. “Feds Investigate Texas dental Medicaid Program.” Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/ investigates/2014/08/14/13774502. Accessed October 26, 2015. 67 California Department of Health Care Services. Weaknesses in its Medi-Cal Dental Program Limit Children’s Access to Dental Care.” Report 2013-125. Page 25. https:// www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2013-125.pdf. Accessed September 4, 2015. 68 Laird Harrison. Medscape Medical News. August 31, 2015. “AAP Adds Flouride Varnish to Anticipatory Guidance Schedule.” New York, N.Y. http://www.medscape.com/ viewarticle/850267. Also, American Academy of Pediatrics. August 31, 2015. “AAP Updates Well Child Visit Schedule.” https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/ Pages/AAP-Updates-Well-Child-Visit-Schedule.aspx. Elk Grove Village, IL. Accessed February 12, 2016. 64 | www.lhc.ca.gov Little Hoover Commission Members Chairman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) Appointed to the Commission by Speaker of the Assembly John Pérez in April 2013. Advisor to telecommunications industry on environmental and regulatory issues and to nonprofit organizations. Former state Assemblymember. Former civil litigator, deputy district attorney and member of the state Coastal Commission. Elected chair of the Commission in March 2014. Vice Chairman David A. Schwarz (R-Beverly Hills) Appointed to the Commission in October 2007 and reappointed in December 2010 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Partner in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP and a member of the firm’s litigation workgroup. Former U.S. delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Scott Barnett (R-San Diego) Appointed to the Commission by former Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins in February 2016. Founder of Scott Barnett LLC, a public advocacy company, whose clients include local non-profits, public charter schools, organized labor and local businesses. Former member of Del Mar City Council and San Diego Unified School District Board of Trustees. David Beier (D-San Francisco) Appointed to the Commission by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in June 2014. Managing director of Bay City Capital. Former senior officer of Genetech and Amgen. Former counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. Serves on the board of directors for the Constitution Project. Senator Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) Appointed to the Commission by the Senate Rules Committee in January 2014. Elected in November 2010 an re-elected in 2014 to the 12th Senate District. Represents Merced and San Benito counties and a portion of Fresno, Madera, Monterey and Stanislaus counties. Jack Flanigan (R-Granite Bay) Appointed to the Commission by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in April 2012. A member of the Flanigan Law Firm. Co-founded California Strategies, a public affairs consulting firm, in 1997. Loren Kaye (R-Sacramento) Appointed to the Commission in March 2006 and reappointed in December 2010 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. President of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education. Former partner at KP Public Affairs. Served in senior policy positions for Governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, including cabinet secretary to the Governor and undersecretary for the California Trade and Commerce Agency. Assemblymember Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) Appointed to the Commission by former Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins in September 2015. Elected in November 2014 to the 42nd Assembly District. Represents Beaumont, Hemet, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, San Jacinto, Twentynine Palms, Yucaipa, Yucca Valley and surrounding areas. Don Perata (D-Orinda) Appointed to the Commission in February 2014 and reappointed in January 2015 by the Senate Rules Committee. Political consultant. Former president pro tempore of the state Senate, from 2004 to 2008. Former Assemblymember, Alameda County supervisor and high school teacher. Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) Appointed to the Commission by former Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins in January 2015. Elected in December 2013 to represent the 54th Assembly District. Represents Century City, Culver City, Westwood, Mar Vista, Palms, Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights, View Park, Crenshaw, Leimert Park, Mid City, and West Los Angeles. Senator Richard Roth (D-Riverside) Appointed to the Commission by the Senate Rules Committee in February 2013. Elected in November 2012 to the 31st Senate District. Represents Corona, Coronita, Eastvale, El Cerrito, Highgrove, Home Gardens, Jurupa Valley, March Air Reserve Base, Mead Valley, Moreno Valley, Norco, Perris and Riverside. Jonathan Shapiro (D-Beverly Hills) Appointed to the Commission in April 2010 and reappointed in January 2014 by the Senate Rules Committee. Writer and producer for FX, HBO and Warner Brothers. Of counsel to Kirkland & Ellis. Former chief of staff to Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, counsel for the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division in Washington, D.C., and the Central District of California. Full biographies available on the Commission’s website at www.lhc.ca.gov. “Democracy itself is a process of change, and satisfaction and complacency are enemies of good government.” Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, addressing the inaugural meeting of the Little Hoover Commission, April 24, 1962, Sacramento, California