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In September 2014, California signed into law A.B. 1174. The intent of the bill is to expand, statewide, components of a pilot program that has allowed dental professionals to provide additional functions in community settings as part of a telehealth-enabled dental care team. The pilot program is the Virtual Dental Home system, developed almost five years ago by the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, University of the Pacific. It creates a community-based oral health delivery system in which people receive preventive and simple therapeutic services in community settings where they live or receive educational, social or general health services. It utilizes the latest technology to link practitioners in the community with dentists at remote office sites.

This webinar, hosted on January 22, 2015 for the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative, walks through the policy process in getting this bill passed, identifying the policies that needed to be changed, how the bill moved through the legislative process and lessons that were learned at the end of the process. A pilot project participating Health Center dental director also discussed her experience of being part of the program.