G-2401-20138

Children Now is a state-wide children’s policy organization in California that engages advocacy and systems change to advance equitable policies in health, education, and economic spaces. Children Now has historically focused their work on the regulatory environment in California in relation to tele-dentistry and the implementation of a multi-year oral health integration pilot and protecting the Medicaid adult dental benefits. For over a decade, the Medi-Cal Dental Services Division, California Dept. of Public Health’s State Office of Oral Health, elected officials, and local health jurisdictions have sought Children Now’s policy expertise to improve children’s access to oral health, seeking to increase preventative services utilizations and strengthening Medi-Cal. Outcomes of the most recent CareQuest Institute grant include delayed sunset of the Child Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) program to July 2024 and required a stakeholder-informed transition plan, including how medical plans will coordinate dental care, and ensuring Community Health Workers can navigate Medi-Cal members to dental services, paving the way for dental providers to leverage CHWs.
Through the Policy and Advocacy Subprogram, Children Now seeks to increase utilization of the new Community Healthcare Worker benefit by ensuring primary care networks enrolled in Medi-Caid leverage the CHW benefit, pursue MOU between plans and local child serving agencies to improve children's oral health outcomes, and ensure closed loop referral systems developed by managed care plans explicitly articulate responsibilities to facilitate access for Medi-Cal members to dental services​. Since the Community Healthcare Worker benefit launched in 2022, very few have accessed the benefit, and the preventative dental services rate in Medi-Cal dental is less than 50%.​
This request is for $150,000, which is less than 2% of the organization’s overall budget. The grant funds will support staff, travel, and meetings and conference expenses.
CareQuest Institute has partnered with Children Now since 2012. In early May 2024, we had a meeting with their team to discuss sustainability, explaining that CareQuest will seek to decrease funding starting next year, if they choose to submit a proposal. They will be submitting a partnership summary document outlining the outcomes of CareQuest Institute support by the end of 2024.