REPORT TITLE:
Dental services


DESCRIPTION:
Appropriates funds to provide basic dental services for adults
covered by Medicaid and Med-QUEST on a fee-for-service basis
through the Med-QUEST program.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        2156
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR BASIC DENTAL SERVICES FOR ADULTS.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that access to services
 
 2 that improve oral health is important to the overall health and
 
 3 well-being of individuals, and that dental services for indigent
 
 4 adults, especially on the neighbor islands, are far too limited
 
 5 to meet the needs of the population.
 
 6      As of February 1, 1996, basic dental services for adults
 
 7 covered by the Medicaid and Med-QUEST programs were discontinued.
 
 8 At the present time, only emergency dental services are covered
 
 9 for these clients.  Medicaid, a federally-funded program, will
 
10 provide fifty-one and one-half per cent of funds necessary for
 
11 basic dental service to adult clients of the Medicaid and Med-
 
12 QUEST programs.  The State must provide the remaining forty-eight
 
13 and one-half per cent for those who are qualified.
 
14      The legislature further finds that the department of health
 
15 and some community health centers have provided dental services
 
16 for adults, but due to budget cutbacks, services have been
 
17 discontinued or scaled down.  The result of these cutbacks is
 
18 that indigent adults, even if covered by Medicaid or Med-QUEST,
 
19 have no access to basic dental care.
 

 
Page 2                                                     2156
                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to provide
 
 2 basic dental services for covered adults, with a $250 per year
 
 3 cap, exclusive of emergency dental services.
 
 4      SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
 5 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $         or so much
 
 6 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001 to provide
 
 7 basic dental services for adults covered by Medicaid and Med-
 
 8 QUEST on a fee-for-service basis through the Med-QUEST program.
 
 9      SECTION 3.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
10 department of human services for the purposes of this Act.
 
11      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2000.
 
12 
 
13                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________