Dental Health Imaging, Jobs, Education & Resources

Community Dental Services (CDS), a provider of dental care plans for nearly 16,000 Medi-Cal members in Sacramento and Los Angeles, will stop its operations starting from the 1st of June. The members will be moved to Liberty Dental Plan.

The operations of CDS will be stopped after a recent audit that was conducted by the Department of Managed Health Care. Marta Bortner, spokeswoman for the department, said that although the final results of the audit have not been yet been distributed to the public, the operations at Dental Services" href="/tag/Community-Dental-Services.html">Community Dental Services are to be stopped.

A number of notifications were issued during previous audits on Community Dental Services, including dental plan approval and denial process, in addition to concerns over the quality of provided care. As a result of the findings of this latest audit, Community Dental Services told the Department of Managed Health Care that it will voluntary stop its operations.

The director of the Department of Health Care Services, Toby Douglas, said "We are taking quick action to ensure that our Medi-Cal dental managed-care enrollees receive quality, timely services from our dental plans,"

One of the main reasons that provoked the latest audit is a recent report concerning dental care plans that were provided to children in Sacramento. The report said that a lot of children suffered painful dental conditions, such as broken teeth, for more than a year while waiting approval on their dental care plan.

Tem Darrell Steinberg, Senate President Pro in D-Sacramento, said "There's no excuse for bureaucracy and lousy providers to get in the way of giving kids the critical medical care they deserve," He concluded "Putting pressure on unreliable providers to get out of the program is a great first step to help these children and their families."