In addition to funding California’s COVID-19 recovery and vaccination efforts and proposing several billion dollars to tackle homelessness and help schools reopen, the state budget proposal released Jan. 8 supports improvements in oral health care delivery and access to dental services.

The California Supreme Court on Jan. 14 upheld its 2018 decision that employers’ use of the ABC test to classify their workers applies retroactively for the purposes of California wage orders.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised 2021-22 state budget proposal includes major opportunities for dental practices and oral health care programs in California. The proposal provides additional relief for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 plus new funding for dental workforce development and Medi-Cal Dental Program improvements.

The California Department of Health Care Services has awarded $69.4 million toward student loan repayments for 249 physicians and 41 dentists to expand health care access for Medi-Cal patients.

The California Oral Health Literacy Toolkit is a new digital resource to help oral health care providers learn or review the basic principles of oral health literacy, including the importance of communicating clearly and with cultural humility and creating a welcoming environment for patients. 
 

Dentists have contacted CDA Practice Support with questions about a letter they received from the California Department of Industrial Relations that provides “a list of critical requirements related to COVID-19” that may apply to the business owner and workplace. 

Cindy Hartwell, dental benefits analyst at CDA Practice Support, reviews how a dental practice can bill properly by registering all treating dentists in the practice with the dental plan or plans.

Cal/OSHA's current regulations on COVID-19-related screening, testing and quarantining apply to dentists, dental team members and other health care workers in California who are fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, as well as to fully vaccinated patients who enter health care settings.

The July issue of the CDA Journal provides a COVID-19 vaccine toolkit with multiple resources dentists can use in their practice. New research on prosthesis design and TMJ is also explored. Read the digital issue.

Dentists registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration should be aware that the DEA is no longer sending renewal notices by U.S. Postal Service as of last June. Instead, registrants will receive several renewal notifications by email. 

Delta Dental of California’s proposed reductions to the “maximum allowable fees” for approximately 2,200 endodontists, periodontists and oral surgeons in California will not take effect July 1, as previously scheduled. Instead, Delta Dental has decided to indefinitely postpone the previously announced fee reductions. 

COVID-19’s impact on dentistry remains a top advocacy priority for CDA, and a new bill that CDA is co-sponsoring with the California Medical Association would help to safeguard health care providers’ financial stability during future state emergencies like the current pandemic.

“There are people in my community who will tell you that the Well-Being Program is probably the most important benefit they’ve received as a CDA member,” said Matthew Korn, DDS, chair of the CDA Well-Being Committee. The program assists dental community members who suffer from alcohol or chemical dependency or both.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, dentists and other prescribers in California must issue electronic-data prescriptions for both controlled and noncontrolled substances with very few exceptions. Paper prescriptions will no longer be allowed by state law. All pharmacies in California must be capable of accepting those prescriptions.

Update: The Cal/OSHA Standards Board voted to withdraw the revisions to its COVID-19 prevention emergency temporary standards that the board approved June 3 and sent to the OAL for review. The board met again June 17 and approved new changes to the standards that took effect the same day after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order.

In 2020 alone, The Dentists Insurance Company’s Risk Management Advice Line received 18,018 calls from dentists seeking support to navigate practice challenges. It’s a number that illustrates the myriad conflicts dentists navigate today as well as the need for tools to help them de-escalate potential crises. 

The California Legislature approved a state budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year that upholds the will of the voters when they passed the Proposition 56 tobacco tax in 2016. The budget makes significant investments in Medi-Cal Dental improvements, workforce development and coronavirus relief. 

Every July, CDA Practice Support starts hearing from members who have received notice from a dental benefit plan about a forthcoming audit. CDA's dental benefits analyst explains the post-pay audit, when dentists must participate in the audit and dentists' right to appeal the findings.

CDA Practice Support answers a member's question about whether a noncontracted dental benefits plan has a legal right to the contracted fee discount of another plan that the dentist does have a contract with. 

Dental providers who receive incentive payments through the Medi-Cal Dental Transformation Initiative can continue participation for one more year. The five-year pilot program was set to expire at the end of 2020, but due to the pandemic the DHCS requested the extension from the federal government.

Judee Tippett-Whyte, DDS, has begun her term as CDA’s president for 2021. In a video interview, she joins immediate past President Richard Nagy, DDS, to share her vision, goals and major issues for the year ahead.

Recently completed audits of selected health care entities for compliance with HIPAA rules found that most of the entities met the timeliness requirements for providing breach notification to individuals but failed to comply with other provisions of the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules. 

The Dental Board of California will stop sending California-licensed dentists and others licensed by the board automated renewal application forms in the mail beginning July 2021. Licensees can expect to receive instead a postcard reminding them to renew online through BreEZe Online Services.

Organized dentistry is making it easier for dentists across California to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Local dental societies have been working with local health departments to get dentists and their staff members vaccinated, and dentists are volunteering their time and skills at vaccination clinics in their communities. 

Health care organizations are receiving postcards disguised as official communications from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, according to an alert the OCR issued yesterday.