Calif. to end managed care dental service

Following an audit by the California Department of Managed Health Care, Community Dental Services -- also known as SmileCare -- will be shut down, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee.

The managed care dental plan will transfer its roughly 16,000 Medi-Cal members, most of whom reside in Sacramento and Los Angeles counties, to the Liberty Dental plan on June 1.

Past audits raised issues with oversight of the quality of care dispensed, the grievance and appeal system, and the process for determining who would receive or be denied care, the article noted. The final results of the audit are forthcoming.

Previous articles in the Bee revealed troubling patterns in the quality of care provided by Community Dental Services. In some cases, children with significant dental problems had to wait more than a year before receiving treatment.