1510-11550

This investment supports Children Now to continue to engage and partner with community stakeholders throughout Southern California in order to ensure that young children have access to the oral health care services that they need and that the local care and policy infrastructure is in place to ensure that children have access to oral health care, education, and prevention. Specifically, Children Now will continue its medical-dental pilot with a focus on engaging Independent Physician Association (IPA) networks in Los Angeles County to educate their primary care provider networks about the importance of providing fluoride varnish to patients; engage the Medi-Cal Dental Services Division to address concerns of public health sites and their capacity to bill for dental services; continue to advocate for policies that address the billing barriers these sites face and for the restoration of the school-based sealant program; and continue to support the growing network of stakeholders in California who are focused on making systems change to improve outcomes for children. Through this collaborative approach, Children Now and its partners will help to strengthen the broader community infrastructure to support the inclusion of oral health in statewide policy, public health program delivery, and coordinated care practices. $200,000 will be used to support personnel time, communications, travel, meeting expenses, and consultant expenses that contribute to the implementation of this project. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 Goal 4 of eradicating dental disease in children and the target of having 75% of children reach age 5 without a cavity.