Teledentistry and Care Coordination in California's $750 Million Dental Transformation Initiative

Session Description: In 2015 CMS approved a Section 1115(a) Waiver for California that included a $750 million Dental Transformation Initiative (DTI) to increase access to preventive dental care for Medi-Cal enrolled children. One domain of the DTI was the implementation of 15 Local Dental Pilot Projects (LDPPs) intended to demonstrate innovative methods to improve the state’s Medi-Cal Dental Program for children. Many of the applications for this funding included using Virtual Dental Home (VDH) systems with telehealth-connected teams, with care coordination and case management activities being a common thread.

The session will describe the VDH system and care coordination activities as they were implemented as part of the DTI LDPPs and provide outcomes data. It will also describe lessons learned, including factors that facilitated adoption and those that presented barriers to optimal deployment of these systems. Finally, conclusions and recommendations will be presented for enhancing success of similar systems.