Health professions: medically or dentally underserved population.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law created the Healthy Families Program for the provision of health, vision, and dental benefits to eligible children pursuant to the federal Children's Health Insurance Program. Existing law provides for the transition of children from the Healthy Families Program to the Medi-Cal program. Existing law establishes the California Medical and Dental Student Loan Repayment Program of 2002, the California Physician Corps Program, and the Steven M. Thompson Medical School Scholarship Program. Existing law conditions eligibility of certain health professionals in those programs on, among other things, provision of services to a medically underserved population, which is defined to include the Medi-Cal, Healthy Families Program, and uninsured populations. This bill would remove obsolete references to the Healthy Families Program in the definition of "medically underserved population" within those provisions. The bill would make related changes to the definition of "dentally underserved population" for purposes of the California Medical and Dental Student Loan Repayment Program of 2002.