CDA continues to advocate at the federal and state levels for needed investments to improve the profession of dentistry and bolster oral health care in California.
States that are focused on improving health care in rural communities have an opportunity to apply for federal grants under the new Rural Health Transformation Program created by H.R. 1 dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” RHTP will award $50 billion over five years beginning in 2026. States will receive $100 million annually for the duration of the program and may receive additional funds based on a scoring process on key metrics included in the state’s application.
Meanwhile in California, the Department of Health Care Access and Information is gathering feedback from stakeholders to help shape the state’s application to RHTP. In comments submitted to HCAI, CDA urged that funds be allocated to support mobile dental/health clinics and expanding the health care workforce in rural areas through student loan repayment programs such as CalHealthCares.
Additionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in July issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making for the “2026 Physician Fee Schedule,” which in the past has expanded payment for dental services linked to or necessary for covered medical procedures.
While the agency did not propose any new clinical scenarios this year, it did propose an improvement activity in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, meaning eligible primary care clinicians would include an oral health risk assessment and intraoral screening as part of a patient’s primary care. CDA provided comments supporting this improvement activity, called Integrating Oral Health Care in Primary Care, and recommended changes to streamline implementation of the current medically necessary payment rule. CDA urged CMS to continue efforts to elaborate on, operationalize and educate the medical and dental community about the payment rules so that Medicare beneficiaries may effectively access the covered dental care.
RHTP funding awardees to be announced by Dec. 31
CDA will continue to advocate that the RHTP funding supports programs like CalHealthCares and mobile dental/health vans. HCAI will finalize California’s RHTP application in October for an early submission date in November, and CMS will announce the awardees by Dec. 31.