Health care access demonstration project grants: Virtual Dental Home Grant Program.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, the administration of a state oral health program known as the Office of Oral Health for the purposes of, among other things, developing comprehensive dental health plans within the framework of the State Plan for Health to maximize utilization of all resources. This bill would establish the Virtual Dental Home Grant Program, to allocate funds, under the direction of the state dental director, for the virtual dental home (VDH) model of community-based dental care in geographic areas of highest need, as prescribed. The bill would require the program to allocate the grants to organizations to, among other things, develop training modules and establish community-based learning collaboratives, as prescribed. The bill would require organizations receiving grants to submit an evaluation on the effectiveness of the program to the department and would authorize the department to post the evaluations on its Internet Web site. The bill would appropriate $4,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Public Health for the purposes of the bill.