Cavity kids: Poor Sacramento children have low access to dental care
Almost two decades ago, the state made Sacramento County the testing ground for a new model of delivering dental care to poor children. Officials envisioned a managed care system that would control costs and improve children’s ability to see a dentist. Today that model persists – but state data shows that the county has consistently produced one of California’s worst records for care. In 2010, only 30 percent of more than 110,000 Sacramento children with Medi-Cal – the government insurance program for the poor – saw a dentist, according to state data. By comparison, nearly half of their Medi-Cal peers statewide visited a dental office. That year, the county ranked third worst in terms of the percentage of kids who got care - above only rural Alpine and Trinity counties. During the three previous years, it was the state's lowest performing children's dental system, state numbers show.
Almost two decades ago, the state made Sacramento County the testing ground for a new model of delivering dental care to poor children. Officials envisioned a managed care system that would control costs and improve children’s ability to see a dentist. Today that model persists – but state data shows that the county has consistently produced one of California’s worst records for care. In 2010, only 30 percent of more than 110,000 Sacramento children with Medi-Cal – the government insurance program for the poor – saw a dentist, according to state data. By comparison, nearly half of their Medi-Cal peers statewide visited a dental office.
Almost two decades ago, the state made Sacramento County the testing ground for a new model of delivering dental care to poor children. Officials envisioned a managed care system that would control costs and improve children's ability to see a dentist.
This article originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg is calling for a state review of a Sacramento County pilot program that provides state-funded dental coverage for low-income children.
A Center for Health Reporting article published in The Bee over the weekend detailed the shortcomings of the managed care program, including long wait times and comparatively low rates of dental care among the more than 110,000 Sacramento County children covered by the program.
State Senate President pro tempore Darrell Steinberg is calling on the state Department of Health Care Services to investigate allegations into “lax accountability and inadequate patient access” for poor Sacramento children with Medi-Cal who are insured by dental managed care plans.
The letter comes in response to a story by the CHCF Center for Health Reporting, which ran in The Sacramento Bee on Sunday, February 12, 2012. The story documented longstanding problems with the “geographic managed care” dental system, which the state imposed on Sacramento County as a pilot program 18 years ago.
Imagine having a toddler with a painful toothache. You take him to the dentist you've been referred to by Medi-Cal, but your child is not seen. Months later when he is treated, all of his baby teeth are decayed and infected.
Last Sunday's lead story in The Bee carried a byline familiar to longtime readers, that of Jocelyn Wiener. That familiar name, though, came to you through a new form of collaborative journalism.
Sometimes good things get cut out of good stories. This happened on my editing watch recently, when a story by Jocelyn Wiener on poor kids’ dental health access in Sacramento grew too big and had to be pared back.
This is where blogs come in handy. I can reach in, restore and expand on a relevant piece of information that otherwise would be lost to the cutting room floor or, more accurately, the delete key.
The state's Medi-Cal chief, under pressure to improve dental care for Sacramento's poor children, pledged this week to implement changes so kids won't have to wait months to receive treatment for painful, rotted or broken teeth.
In response to concerns raised by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, Toby Douglas outlined the steps that the state Department of Health Care Services will take to ensure that the more than 110,000 Sacramento County children with Medi-Cal get "high quality and timely" dental care.
The political back-and-forth over Sacramento County’s failing Denti-Cal program is heating up.
Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, on Monday called on the state’s Medi-Cal chief to take immediate action to improve dental care for more than 110,000 Sacramento County children.
This story originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
Perhaps the bureaucrats who run the state's Medi-Cal dental program would move more quickly to improve dental service for Sacramento kids if it were their own children waiting for months for their cavities, broken teeth and abscessed molars to be treated.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | March 8, 2012
Political opposition to Sacramento County’s managed care dental program for poor children is mounting, as state government officials promise new accountability and a wide range of politicians call for quick action to protect the kids.
This story originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | March 13, 2012
Seeking to break managed care’s monopoly on dental care for Sacramento County’s poor children, state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg plans to introduce legislation to allow more choice in who kids can see, his aide told the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
This story originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
Even the experts are confused.
At two public hearings this week to discuss problems with Sacramento County’s dental care program for poor kids, not all the expert witnesses agreed on which California counties provide Medi-Cal dental services via managed care.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | March 23, 2012
The Legislature took its first formal step Thursday to free Sacramento County's poor children from the confines of mandatory managed dental care. A Senate committee unanimously approved a proposal by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to give Sacramento County children on Medi-Cal a choice for their dental coverage.
This story originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | April 6, 2012
Since February, reports from the CHCF Center for Health Reporting and The Sacramento Bee have painted a grim picture of low-income children waiting for months or even years to see a dentist in Sacramento. And now some state lawmakers are calling for immediate action.
Almost two decades ago, the state started a managed care pilot program in Sacramento County for children’s dental care. Since then, several families have described harrowing instances of long wait times and unsuccessful attempts to get through the red tape.
This story originally aired on KQED Public Radio.
In our ongoing coverage of Sacramento County’s dental plan for poor kids, we’ve reported on proposals to fix its performance, including a measure in the Legislature that would fundamentally change the way the Medi-Cal program works there.
But there’s another, earlier bill that advocates say would have statewide impact, especially for Californians who live in places where dental treatment is difficult to access.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | April 24, 2012
Recent media coverage of Sacramento County's failed dental program for poor children has sparked intense outcry, with elected officials and children's advocates leveling some of their harshest criticism at dental plans.
Executives for one of those plans, Access Dental, offered their views of the controversy in an in-depth interview with the CHCF Center for Health Reporting.
This story originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.
When state lawmakers learned that Sacramento County’s dental program for poor children has one of the worst records in the state, they immediately scheduled hearings and demanded reform.
But the same statistics that revealed Sacramento’s dismal record mask a larger Medi-Cal managed care program that does an even worse job – one that hasn’t received the same kind of legislative scrutiny.
CHCF Center for Health Reporting | June 27, 2012
If signed by the Governor, a bill passed by the Legislature would offer some Sacramento County low-income children a choice in dental care.
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