Press Clips

California Health Report

Concern over accessibility to dental care for children on Medi-Cal brings to surface the need for alternative solutions to increase access. "One of the solutions is to bring dental care to children where they are," says Kattlove. "School-based programs are very successful in addressing access issues."

Read the full article here . 

Huffington Post Blog

Wendy Lazarus outlines the main "ingredients" for succes that matter the most for kids under the ACA.  "Our collective job over the months ahead is to make good decisions on behalf of the millions of children in this country who are not at these decision-making tables but whose well-being -- and even lives -- depend on making the right choices."

Download the full piece here.

EdSource

Findings from TCP's Dental Brief, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California Kids Depend On It, are highlighted in this article to support the need for schools to provide a dental health safety net. As acces to dental care through Medi-Cal remains an obstacle for low-income children, dental problems keep these kids out of school and affects school performance. 

Download the article here.

HealthyCal.org

California needs to act now to prevent a severe dental crisis. “School based programs are very successful in addressing access issues,” says Kattlove. Also, training other medical professionals in preventative oral care and introducing innovations such as teledentistry are alternate solutions offered.  

Download the article here. 

Chico News & Review

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Lamorinda Weekly

Wendy Lazarus describes the lack of access to dental care for children in Medi-Cal. 

Download the full article here.

Capitol Weekly

Wendy Lazarus urges California's Health Benefit Exchange to deliver a "first-class consumer experience," as we count down to the opening of Covered California and enrollment for health insurance under the ACA. 

Download the full opinion piece here.

California Healthline

Download the full article here. 

California Healthline

"California's Medi-Cal dental system is already struggling to serve children and is unprepared for what's to come," said Wendy Lazarus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership. "California's kids deserve real access to quality dental care -- not a false promise of it," Lazarus said in a statement accompanying the recent issue brief, "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California's Kids Depend On It."

Download the full article here.

California Healthline

The Heathy Families transition started Jan. 1, moving 197,000 children to Medi-Cal managed care plans. So far, according to DHCS officials, the telephone complaint hotline has been pretty quiet. "That's what we're trying to assess right now," said Kristen Golden Testa, director of the California Health Program for The Children's Partnership. She said several provider groups are conducting surveys of their members to see what providers are experiencing, and that data hasn't come in yet. "I'm not sure I would rely on the call center and complaint lines because on the ground is where we'll hear it," she said. 

Download the full article here.

California's Children, by HSMC 

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New America Media

TCP released a report  on the crisis faced by many families whose children depend on Medi-Cal for their dental care. Jenny Kattlove, the author of the issue brief, is TCP’s Director of Strategic Health Initiatives. 

“The state has said that they feel there are enough dental providers, except for a few small counties … But, the program is not up to par. It can’t currently meet the needs of its enrollees, let alone those of a million new children,” Kattlove says.

Download the full article here.

California Healthline

TCP report, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage, highlights that "children currently enrolled in Medi-Cal are not receiving needed dental care. According to the report, nearly half of beneficiaries under age 21 who are enrolled in Denti-Cal -- a Medi-Cal dental program -- did not receive a dental check-up or treatment in 2011. The report found that a major factor in the lack of dental care was that relatively few dentists accept Medi-Cal patients."

Download the full press clip here. 

83.9 KPCC

California is facing a looming dental crisis as it prepares to transition nearly a million more youngsters into Medi-Cal’s already overburdened dental programs. “Currently, families are really struggling to access dental care for their families,” says Jenny Kattlove, author of the report, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage. “Often times they have to wait months even just to get an appointment and/or they have to travel great distances to get care.”

Download the interview here.
To listen to the interview, link here.

DrBicuspid.com

The Children's Partnership (TCP) has released an issue brief and action plan addressing the challenges Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, faces in providing dental care to children in the state. The issue brief also stresses the impact that newly enrolled children will have on the state's strained dental care system.

Download the article here.

"It's a public health issue" according to Jenny Kattlove, Director of Strategic Health Initiatives. "A large number of California children do not have dental coverage at all. About 1.8 million of them in public coverage are not getting the dental care they need. One reason is that the reimbursement rate for dentists is very low, close to the lowest in the nation, and in California there are Medi-Cal administrative barriers providers face.

Download the full article here .

California Healthline

A national study released today by the Pew Center on the States, part of the Pew Charitable Trusts, grades every state's level of adherence to a basic preventive dental procedure for children -- the application of dental sealant. California earned a "C."

"So now there is no state-led assessment of children's dental health needs, or even a plan to take care of the needs of California children," Kattlove said. "You need to first identify the needs, identify the solutions and then work to address those solutions. That's not happening."

Download the article here.

California Healthline

State health officials will go on as scheduled with the first phase of the Healthy Families transition to Medi-Cal managed care, beginning January 1, 2013. Children's health advocates say they will do everything to support that effort while still keeping a careful eye on its progress.

"The signs are the Brown Administration will proceed with this, so the attention has to be on how to monitor what's happening," says Wendy Lazrus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership.

Download the article with her full comments here. 

California Watch

As 870,000 children are moved from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal beginning January 1, 2013, children's advocates express concern about children having access to care. "Our worry is that there seems to be an intention to proceed with these transitions without that certainty that the doctors will be there to meet all these kids," said Kathleen Hamilton, director of governmental affairs with the Children's Partnership.

Download the full article. (PDF)

Education Week

Wendy Lazarus describes the need for schools and organizations to prioritize bridging the gap between school and home in order "to have parents become both digitally literate and more engaged in their children's education," in this article about schools using social networking to involve parents. 

Download here (PDF).

California Healthline, Capitol Desk

Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President, responds to last week's action in California: 415,000 notices were sent to inform Healthy Families participants they will need to switch to Medi-Cal managed care plans on January 1.

"Stakeholders are not against the transition, but are concerned about the speed at which changes take place. When so many providers and consumers are forming opinions about Medi-Cal managed care and about health care reform in general, it's important this transition does not cause undue concern." Ms. Lazarus continues, "With a little more due diligence, it can be done better. If it's premature at the start of it, that could plant questions in the minds of the public to implement health reform. It just needs a little more time to make it right."

Download the full article. 

CaliforniaHealthline

As California forges ahead to resolve several key questions about how insurers will provide pediatric dental and vision benefits under the federal Affordable Care Act, a new study examines dental benefits in California's implementation of ACA.

"The study raises good questions," said Jenny Kattlove, who coordinates dental access programs for The Children's Partnership. "We want to make sure that children of all ages have access to dental coverage. We want to make sure families understand that children are eligible for pediatric dental benefits and that enrollment in both health and dental coverage will be coordinated."

Download the full article here. (PDF)

Huffington Post

As gaming becomes more social, it is expanding into parts of society once seen as untouched by video games. The largest of these groups is women, who make up 55 percent of social gamers on average. Women are also more likely than men to make charitable contributions, care about youth-related causes, and purchase virtual goods in social games. 

The kinds of in-game donations and virtual goods that helped fund disaster relief in Haiti and Japan are a natural next step for helping our own children. The potential is enormous for both gaming companies and children. In 2011, the virtual goods industry saw $2.3 billion in US sales. In a market that big, there is certainly room for many causes. The Children's Partnership is working to make sure that child poverty is one of them.

Download the full article.

The Washington Post

An article highlighting the VirtuallyGood4Kids (VG4K) inititative encouraging  the gaming "industry to provide parents and their kids with more opportunities to direct the money they spend on virtual purchases toward fundraising causes."

Learn more about VirtuallyGood4Kids.