BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2485|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2485
Author: Santiago (D)
Amended: 8/15/16 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/27/16
AYES: Hill, Bates, Block, Gaines, Galgiani, Hernandez,
Jackson, Mendoza, Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Dental Corps Loan Repayment Program
SOURCE: California Dental Association
DIGEST: This bill revises terms of qualification and
disbursement for the Dental Board of California's Dental Corps
Loan Repayment Program.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Dental Board of California (Board) within the
Department of Consumer Affairs to license and regulate the
practice of dentistry. (Business and Professions Code (BPC)
§§ 1601.1, 1611)
2)Establishes the Dental Corps Loan Repayment Program of 2002
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(Program) in the Board. (BPC § 1970)
3)Requires a Program applicant to have a current, valid license
to practice dentistry. (BPC § 1972 (a))
4)Establishes loan repayment as follows: (BPC § 1975)
a) After a Program participant has completed one year of
providing services as a dentist in a dentally underserved
area, the Board shall provide up to twenty-five thousand
dollars ($25,000) for loan repayment.
b) After a Program participant has completed two
consecutive years of providing services as a dentist in a
dentally underserved area, the Board shall provide up to an
additional thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) of loan
repayment, for a total loan repayment of up to sixty
thousand dollars ($60,000).
c) After a Program participant has completed three
consecutive years of providing services as a dentist in a
dentally underserved area, the Board shall provide up to a
maximum of an additional forty-five thousand dollars
($45,000) of loan repayment, for a total loan repayment of
up to one hundred five thousand dollars ($105,000).
This bill:
1)Renames the California Dental Corps Loan Repayment Program of
2002 as the Program.
2)Defines a "practice setting" to mean either of the following:
a) A community clinic, as specified; a clinic owned or
operated by a public hospital and health system; or a
clinic owned and operated by a hospital that maintains the
primary contract with a county government to fulfill the
county's role, as specified, that is located in a dentally
underserved area or at least 50 percent of whose patients
are from a dentally underserved population.
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b) A dental practice or dental corporation located in a
dentally underserved area, or at least 50 percent of whose
patients are from a dentally underserved population.
3)Requires an applicant, if selected, to sign an agreement with
the Board to maintain qualified employment for 36 months
continuously, and that the qualified employment meets or, once
commenced, will meet the minimum requirements of the Program
regarding practice setting, and clinical hours worked.
Requires an applicant to agree to provide an annual progress
report signed by both the applicant and employer or employer's
designee. A progress report shall verify the practice
setting's qualified status, clinical hours worked by the
applicant, number of patients treated, specific treatment
rendered and its value, and patient's payer source.
4)Requires the Board, in selecting a participant for the
Program, to give priority consideration to an applicant who is
best suited to meet the cultural and linguistic needs and
demands of dentally underserved populations by demonstrating
experience in one or more of the following areas:
a) Speaks one or more Medi-Cal threshold languages.
b) Comes from an economically disadvantaged background with
economic, social, or other circumstances.
c) Has worked in a health field in an underserved area or
with an underserved population.
d) Is a dentist specialist recognized by the American
Dental Association or has met all eligibility requirements
to graduate from a dental specialty residency Program
approved by the Commission on Dental Accreditation.
e) Has completed an extramural Program or rotation during
dental school or postgraduate education in which the
applicant provided services to a population that speaks any
Medi-Cal threshold language.
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5)Requires the practice setting to be located in a dentally
underserved area and to ensure that the Program participant
serves a patient population that consists of at least 50
percent dentally underserved populations.
6)Requires a Program participant to commit to a minimum of three
years of service in one or more eligible practice settings.
Loan repayment or grant disbursement shall be deferred until
the dentist is employed on a full-time basis.
7)Requires the Board to develop a process for a program
participant's repayment of loans or grants disbursed in the
event that the participant is terminated prior to completion
of, or is otherwise unable to complete, his or her three years
of service obligation. Cause for termination shall include,
but is not limited to, the following:
a) Recipient's termination of full-time, qualified
employment.
b) Recipient's failure to maintain his or her professional
license in good standing.
c) Recipient's failure to comply with any other term or
condition of this article.
8)Requires the Board to report to the Legislature on the Program
during its sunset review period.
9)Declares this act an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
in order to ensure that low-income communities immediately
receive the dental care they desperately lack as soon as
possible by removing barriers to available and unused special
funds for dentists who seek to serve designated underserved
populations.
Background
According to the author's office, this bill is necessary to
"codify existing regulations for the implementation of the
Program; expand pool of applicants eligible for the Dental Corps
Loan Repayment Program; revise the timeline for loan
distribution; remove deterrents that keep away potential
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applicants; and, require the DBC to report on the effectiveness
of the Program at the time of its sunset review."
The Program. AB 982 (Firebaugh, Chapter 1131, Statutes of 2002)
established the original California Dental Corps Loan Repayment
Program. The Program, administered by the Board, is designed to
assist dentists who practice in dentally underserved areas by
repaying dental school loans up to $105,000. A total of $3
million was initially authorized to expend from the State
Dentistry Fund for this Program. SB 540 (Price, Chapter 385,
Statutes of 2011) then extended the Program until all the money
is expended. However, the Board has awarded funds to only 19
participants in five years. Approximately $1.63 million is left
in the account.
The Board indicates that it promotes the Program through the
Board's Web site and presents information to California dental
students, as well as partners with stakeholders and professional
associations to increase awareness.
Concerns about the unspent funds were raised in the Board's 2014
Sunset Review. The Board reported that its Access to Care
Committee was in the process of exploring why applications have
dropped off and whether the Board's requirements are more
restrictive than those of other organizations having success
with similar loan repayment programs.
This bill keeps largely the same parameters as those required in
the prior Program, as well as integrates some existing
regulations. The major changes allow individuals who are still
in school to apply, changes language requiring certain criteria
to instead "give priority" to those individuals who meet them,
and change the structure of the repayment program.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill will
result in minor costs for revising existing regulations and
administering the Program and the additional expenditure of loan
repayment funds of up to $1.6 million.
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SUPPORT: (Verified8/16/16)
California Dental Association (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/16/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The California Dental Association (CDA)
writes, "The legislature recognized the importance of growing
the dental workforce in 2002 when it passed Assembly Bill 982?
and those populations have only grown since then, and it is
still a challenge to find dental providers to serve them.
Despite this, the state still has over a million and a half
dollars left in the loan repayment grant fund with no recent
applicants to receive it." According to CDA, the lack of
program participants stems from extensive and burdensome
qualification requirements, and a general lack of awareness of
the program's existence. The organization notes that this bill
"will ?remove some unnecessary and burdensome provisions of the
program that have been serving as a deterrent to qualified and
willing potential applicants."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
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Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cooper
Prepared by:Sarah Huchel / B., P. & E.D. / (916) 651-4104
8/16/16 10:28:44
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