What a Difference a Year Makes for Western Dental

On June 1st of 2015 Western Dental stopped accepting Denti-Cal in 13 of it’s dental offices.  Low reimbursement rates were sited for this move.  (Read the original story HERE.)  Fast forward to February of this year Western reopened all of their offices in the state of California to Denti-Cal patients, (story HERE).  The importance of this move is amplified by the fact that less than 1 in 5 dentists in CA see 100 or more Denti-Cal patients per year and Western dentists account for one-third of the dentists in the state who see more than 100 Denti-Cal patients per year.

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With the recent passage of SB-75 children under 19 regardless of immigration status will be eligible for Medi-Cal coverage and with that Denti-Cal.  The bill allows California to expand its health coverage to 170,000 undocumented immigrant children.

Denti-Cal is a key component of California’s Medi-Cal system, a public benefits program that provides services for low-income individuals and families.  Many of these families are concentrated in larger urban areas, but the California Department of Health Care Services estimates about one-sixth of the newly eligible low-income undocumented children live in the agricultural areas of Sacramento and Kern Counties.  In many of these rural areas, Western Dental is the only dentist in town.

Source: PRNewswire

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