No. CS/HB 363
Filed under Healthcare.
Dental Therapy ; Authorizes Medicaid to reimburse for dental services provided by certain mobile dental units; creates Council on Dental Therapy; specifies licensure requirements, services, limitations, & prohibitions relating to practice of dental therapy; requires DOH, in consultation with Board of Dentistry & AHCA, to submit reports to Legislature.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDDental therapists may perform restorative work — fillings, simple extractions, pulpotomies, and crowns on primary teeth — under a dentist's general supervision, meaning the dentist need not be present once a written collaborative agreement is in place.
Licensure requires an accredited dental therapy degree, passing clinical and state jurisprudence exams, and a clean background check; a program that a school certifies as substantially conforming can qualify applicants through January 2030.
Medicaid will newly reimburse mobile dental units that are owned, operated, or under contract with a health access setting — community health centers, Head Start programs, and state agency programs among them.
Unlicensed practice of dental therapy becomes a third-degree felony. A new Board of Dentistry council, seated once the first license issues, will recommend rules on licensing, discipline, and education for the profession.
AISets criteria for a new mid-level dental license: age 18 or older, an accredited dental therapy degree, passing clinical and jurisprudence exams, background screening, and no disqualifying felony or health-related misdemeanor convictions.
AIDental therapists may extract certain teeth, place fillings and crowns, perform pulpotomies, and give local anesthesia and nitrous oxide, all under a dentist's general supervision rather than on-site direction.
AIMedicaid will pay for mobile dental unit services when the unit is owned by, operated by, or under contract with a health access setting, such as a community health center or Head Start program.
AIPracticing dental therapy without an active license issued by the department becomes a third-degree felony, the same penalty that already applies to unlicensed dentistry and dental hygiene.
AIExtends the existing ban on corporate ownership of dental practices: a nondentist person or entity may not employ a dental therapist or control the equipment a dental therapist uses to treat patients.
AIA supervising dentist may let a dental therapist treat a patient the dentist has not yet examined or diagnosed, so long as the collaborative agreement sets the conditions and care beyond the therapist's scope is referred back.
AIOnce the first dental therapy license issues, a 28-month clock starts for the board chair to seat a council of one board member and three practicing dental therapists to recommend licensing and discipline rules.