New York State Senator Catharine Young www.nysenate.gov/senator/catharine-young last March introduced legislation to boost dental services in the state and also enable dental healthcare professionals to provide telehealth services.
The telehealth legislation signed into law earlier this year has already proven to be effective in just a few short months. The new legislation now allows teledental care to be included and is classified as a reimbursable form of medical coverage under Medicaid.
Senator Catharine Young, able to secure $250,000 from last year’s state budget is now expanding children’s dental services through what is known at the “Rural Dentistry Pilot Program”. The program is operated by the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine http://dental.buffalo.edu to help children receive dental care across the Southern Tier of the state.
In recent years, the University has provided school-based mobile dentistry services to children living in Chautauqua County. The program obtained a mobile dentist office retrofitted to a semi-truck funded through federal grants to provide the services.
Now the state funded pilot program will expand the mobile dental services to Cattaraugus and Allegany counties while continuing to offer services in Chautauqua County. The project is also introducing smaller portable dental units that can be used to conduct exams and provide preventative care inside the schools.
As a result of the program, the university will be able study and report on the added mobile dental services in the counties. This will identify demographics, access barriers, and determine the necessary resources needed so that best practices can be developed and applied throughout the state.
This year, the program expects to reach seven school districts, ten additional schools, and several Head Start locations. The program hopes to expand in upcoming years and add more funding to the program.
In addition, Senator Young guided passage of legislation authorizing dentists to be added to the “Doctors across New York” program which opens up greater dental services to underserved areas of the state, and enables dentists to be recruited and receive financial incentives to work in communities that lack dentists.