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.

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.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara last Wednesday issued a notice to California health insurance and specialized health insurance companies, including 55 dental benefits companies, requesting that they “provide their policyholders with a partial premium refund no later than December 31, 2020.

The fight against Big Tobacco and its deceptive tactics and targeting practices continues with CDA joining a large coalition of health care, youth and community organizations to support legislation that would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, in California. 

Now that Gov. Newsom has eased the statewide stay-at-home order and dentists are beginning to return to practice, CDA's Grassroots Advocacy Days have resumed. In the last weeks, dentists from four component dental societies met with their local legislators or legislative staff through Zoom, the videoconferencing platform.
 

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. 

Graduating California dental school students today received news that WREB and ADEX manikin-based examinations will be accepted for licensure in the state effective immediately. 

An initiative that would substantially raise health care costs for all Californians, reduce access to health care and harm patients most in need has qualified for the 2022 ballot. 

Healthy People 2030, a 10-year national plan to promote and improve public health and prevent disease, launched Aug. 18 via webcast with experts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speaking on health equity, well-being and business partnerships. 

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. 

An expedited licensure application review process is now available for individuals in specific categories who apply for a professional license through California licensing boards, including dentists, RDAs and RDAEFs who apply for licensure through the Dental Board of California. 

Despite Big Tobacco’s multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to stop legislation that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in California, the Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly signed Senate Bill 793 into law last Friday. 

The state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom reached an agreement yesterday on a balanced state budget for 2020-21 fiscal year that preserves critical safety net health care funding in the Medi-Cal dental (Denti-Cal) program.

Student loan borrowers in California have new protections against lenders’ and servicers’ unfair, deceptive and predatory practices under the state’s new Student Borrower Bill of Rights.