(a) (1) The department shall implement the Dental Transformation Initiative, or DTI, in accordance with the Special Terms and Conditions, with the goal of improving the oral health care for Medi-Cal children zero to 20 years of age, inclusive.

(2) The DTI is intended to improve the oral health care for Medi-Cal children with a particular focus on increasing the statewide proportion of qualifying children enrolled in the Medi-Cal Dental Program who receive a preventive dental service by 10 percentage points over a five-year period.

(3) The DTI includes the following four domains as outlined in the Special Terms and Conditions:

(A) Preventive Services.

(B) Caries Risk Assessment.

(C) Continuity of Care.

(D) Local Dental Pilot Projects.

(4) Under the DTI, incentive payments within each domain will be available to qualified providers who meet the requirements of the domain.

(b) For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:

(1) “DTI incentive payment” means a payment made to an eligible contracted service office location pursuant to the DTI component of the Special Terms and Conditions.

(2) “DTI pool” means the funding available under the Special Terms and Conditions for the purposes of the DTI program, as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c).

(3) “DTI program year” means a calendar year beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31 during which the DTI component is authorized under the Special Terms and Conditions, beginning with the 2016 calendar year, and, as applicable, each calendar year thereafter through 2020, and any years or partial years during which the DTI is authorized under an extension or successor to the demonstration project.

(4) “Safety net clinics” means centers or clinics that provide services defined under subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 14132.100 that are eligible for DTI incentive payments in accordance with the Special Terms and Conditions. DTI incentive payments received by safety net clinics shall be considered separate and apart from either the Prospective Payment System reimbursement for federally qualified health centers or rural health centers, or Memorandum of Agreement reimbursement for Tribal Health Centers. Each safety net clinic office location shall be considered a dental service office location for purposes of the domains authorized by the Special Terms and Conditions.

(5) “Service office location” means the business, or pay-to address, in which the provider, which may be an individual, partnership, group, association, corporation, institution, or entity that provides dental services, renders dental services. This may include a provider that participates in either the dental fee-for-service or dental managed care Medi-Cal delivery systems.

(c) (1) The DTI shall be funded at a maximum of one hundred forty-eight million dollars ($148,000,000) annually, and for five years totaling a maximum of seven hundred forty million dollars ($740,000,000), except as provided in the Special Terms and Conditions. To the extent any of the funds associated with the DTI are not fully expended in a given DTI program year, those remaining prior DTI program year funds may be available for DTI payments in subsequent years, notwithstanding the annual limits stated in the Special Terms and Conditions. The department may earn additional demonstration authority, up to a maximum of ten million dollars ($10,000,000), to be added to the DTI pool for use in paying incentives to qualifying providers under DTI by achieving higher performance improvement, as indicated in the Special Terms and Conditions.

(2) Providers in either the dental fee-for-service or dental managed care Medi-Cal delivery systems are permitted to participate in the DTI. The department shall make DTI incentive payments directly to eligible contracted service office locations. Incentive payments shall be issued to the service office location based on the services rendered at the location and that service office location’s compliance with the criteria enumerated in the Special Terms and Conditions.

(3) Incentive payments from the DTI pool are intended to support and reward eligible service office locations for achievements within one or more of the project domains. The incentive payments shall not be considered as a direct reimbursement for dental services under the Medi-Cal State Plan.

(A) The department may provide DTI incentive payments to eligible service office locations on a semiannual or annual basis, or in a manner otherwise consistent with the Special Terms and Conditions.

(B) The department shall disburse DTI incentive payments to eligible service office locations that did not previously participate in Medi-Cal before the demonstration and that render preventive dental services during the demonstration to the extent the service office location meets or exceeds the goals specified by the department in accordance with the Special Terms and Conditions.

(C) Safety net clinics are eligible for DTI incentive payments specified in the Special Terms and Conditions. Participating safety net clinics shall be responsible for submitting data in a manner specified by the department for receipt of DTI incentive payments. Each safety net clinic office location shall be considered a dental service office location for purposes of specified domains outlined in the Special Terms and Conditions.

(D) Dental managed care provider service office locations are eligible for DTI incentive payments, as specified in the Special Terms and Conditions, and these payments shall be considered separate from payment received from a dental managed care plan.

(E) Service office locations shall submit all data in a manner acceptable to the department within one year from the date of service or by January 31 for the preceding year that the service was rendered, whichever occurs sooner, to be eligible for DTI incentive payments associated with that timeframe.

(d) The domains of the DTI are as follows:

(1) Increase Preventive Services Utilization for Children: This domain aims to increase the statewide proportion of qualifying children enrolled in Medi-Cal who receive a preventive dental service in a given year. The statewide goal is to increase the utilization among children enrolled in the dental fee-for-service and dental managed care delivery systems by at least 10 percentage points by the end of the demonstration.

(2) Caries Risk Assessment and Disease Management Pilot:

(A) This domain will initially only be available to participating service office locations in select pilot counties, designated by the department, as specified in the Special Terms and Conditions. Participating service office locations shall elect to be approved by the department to participate in this domain of the DTI program. To the extent the department determines the pilots to be successful, the department may seek to implement this domain on a statewide basis and subject to the availability of funding under the DTI pool available for this purpose.

(B) Medi-Cal dentists voluntarily participating in this pilot shall be eligible to receive DTI incentive payments for implementing preidentified treatment plans for children based upon that child beneficiary‘s risk level as determined by the service office location via a caries risk assessment, which shall include motivational interviewing and use of antimicrobials, as indicated. The department shall identify the criteria and preidentified treatment plans to correspond with the varying degrees of caries risk, low, moderate, and high, while the rendering provider shall develop and implement the appropriate treatment plan based on the needs of the beneficiary.

(C) The department shall identify and select pilot counties through an analysis of counties with a high percentage of restorative services, a low percentage of preventive services, and indication of likely participation by enrolled service office locations.

(3) Increase Continuity of Care: A DTI incentive payment shall be paid to eligible service office locations that have maintained continuity of care through providing examinations for their enrolled child beneficiaries under 21 years of age, as specified in the Special Terms and Conditions. The department shall begin this effort in select counties and shall seek to implement on a statewide basis if the pilot is determined to be successful and subject to the availability of funding under the DTI pool. If successful, the department shall consider an expansion no sooner than nine months following the end of the second DTI program year.

(4) Local Dental Pilot Projects (LDPPs): LDPPs shall address one or more of the three domains identified in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) through alternative local dental pilot projects, as authorized by the department pursuant to the Special Terms and Conditions.

(A) The department shall require local pilots to have broad-based provider and community support and collaboration, including engagement with tribes and Indian health programs, with DTI incentive payments available to the pilot based on goals and metrics that contribute to the overall goals of the domains described in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3).

(B) The department shall solicit proposals at the beginning of the demonstration and shall review, approve, and make DTI incentive payments to approved LDPPs in accordance with the Special Terms and Conditions.

(C) A maximum of 15 LDPPs shall be approved and no more than 25 percent of the total funding in the DTI pool shall be used for LDPPs.

(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 561, Sec. 287. (AB 1516) Effective January 1, 2018.)