CCS HS SCS SB 393 -- DENTAL SERVICES

This bill contains various provisions pertaining to dental
care.  The bill:

(1)  Allows physicians to administer the appropriate fluoride
treatment to children when they receive their immunizations;

(2)  Requires the Director of the Department of Health to
include dentists in the development and implementation of a plan
to provide a system of coordinated health care services
accessible to all persons in rural and urban areas of Missouri,
particularly areas designated as health resource shortage areas;

(3)  Renames the Medical School Loan Repayment Program as the
Health Professional Student Loan Repayment Program and expands
its scope to include dentists.  The criteria for areas of
defined need are revised.  Patient ratios, poverty and age
percentages, and distance requirements to hospitals are removed
and replaced with a designation as a shortage area by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services or a determination of
extraordinary need by the Director of the Department of Health.
The maximum amount of repayment assistance is revised from its
current level of $20,000 per year of obligated service to an
amount not exceeding the maximum allowed under the National
Health Service Corps Repayment Program.  For students who breach
their service obligation contracts, the penalty of $500 per
month of service not completed is deleted.  Students will be
responsible for damages incurred by the Department of Health
resulting from the breach and for legal fees and costs incurred
in the collection of damages;

(4)  Allows the Department of Health to provide literature on
the importance of routine dental care for children;

(5)  Repeals the requirement that dentists and dental hygienists
from other states offering gratuitous services in Missouri may
do so only in summer camps;

(6)  Establishes a 5-member Advisory Commission for Dental
Hygienists.  The duties of the commission include recommending
educational requirements for dental hygienist registration;
annually reviewing the practice act of dental hygienists;
providing recommendations to the Missouri Dental Board
concerning the practice, licensure, examination, and discipline
of dental hygienists; and assisting the board in implementing
the dental hygienist provisions of Chapter 332, RSMo.  Members
of the commission will be appointed by the Governor with the
advice and consent of the Senate.  The requirements,
composition, lengths of service, selection of commission
members, and times of commission meetings are stated in the
bill.  Members of the initial commission are required to be
appointed by April 1, 2002;

(7)  Allows licensed dental hygienists who have been practicing
for at least 3 years and who practice in a public health setting
to provide, without the supervision of a licensed dentist,
fluoride treatments, teeth cleaning, and sealants, if
appropriate, to children who are eligible for medical assistance
under Chapter 208.  Public health settings where a dental
hygienist can practice without the supervision of a licensed
dentist will be established jointly by the Department of Health
and the Missouri Dental Board by rule.  This provision will
expire on August 28, 2006;

(8)  Requires the Medicaid program to reimburse eligible
providers who provide fluoride treatments, sealants, and teeth
cleaning to eligible children;

(9)  Allows the Department of Health to contract with the
Missouri Dental Board to establish a Donated Dental Services
Program in conjunction with the provisions of Section 332.323.
Licensed volunteer dentists will provide comprehensive dental
care for the needy, disabled, elderly, and medically compromised
persons.  Dental care can be provided to these persons in a
licensed volunteer dentist's office.  Eligible persons are
required to pay for dental laboratory costs.  The department may
contract with the Missouri Dental Board, its designee, or other
qualified organizations to administer the program.  The bill
also contains provisions specifying the contractual
responsibilities of the organization administering the program;

(10)  Allows the Director of the Department of Social Services,
or a designee, to contract with and to provide funding support
to federally qualified health centers in Missouri.  Funding
support is subject to appropriation.  The funding is required to
be used to assist the health centers in ensuring the provision
of health care and dental care to needy persons.  The funds can
also be used by the health centers for capital expansion,
infrastructure redesign, or other similar uses if federal
funding is not available for these purposes; and

(11)  Removes language prohibiting the use of general revenue
funds for certain health care programs and initiatives and
allows any other funds to be used for these programs and
initiatives.

The bill contains an emergency clause pertaining to fluoride
treatments and immunizations; dental awareness for children;
gratuitous dental services and dental hygienist services; dental
hygienist services without the supervision of a licensed
dentist; the Donated Dental Services Program; and funding for
federally qualified health centers.

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated November 26, 2001 at 11:47 am