State Invests Millions in Denti-Cal Amid Ongoing Provider Shortages
During the lean budget years of the economic recession, the state cut Denti-Cal benefits and only covered services for children. Full benefits were restored to adults last year, along with mandates to the local health plans that they provide transportation and interpretation services for dental appointments. But Denti-Cal has been creaking under various financial and logistical burdens. While more than half of the state’s doctors treat patients in Medi-Cal, the state’s low-income health program, little more than 15 percent of dentists treat Denti-Cal enrollees.
“The challenge is not just the number of providers, but how they are geographically distributed,” said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, health integration policy director for the California Pan Ethnic Health Network. She noted that rural areas of the state are underserved by dentists, and that there is also a dearth of bilingual providers to treat patients who don’t speak English.
