HR 1055 · 114th Congress 2015–2017, ended

Comprehensive Dental Reform Act of 2015

Fact sheet

Latest action · Nov 23, 2015 Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedFeb 25, 2015
  2. Passed HouseNot reached
  3. Passed SenateNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Comprehensive Dental Reform Act of 2015

Amends titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to cover oral health services.

Increases the federal medical assistance percentage for oral health services, thereby increasing payments to states under Medicaid.

Directs the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to maintain a database of dental benefits available to adult Medicaid enrollees in each state.

Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish, revise, and extend funding for grant programs for:

  • educating nondental professionals about oral health care;
  • providing dental services in hospital emergency rooms or in community settings;
  • providing scholarships and education loans for oral health professional students;
  • providing oral health services to low-income and underserved individuals;
  • building, operating, or expanding dental clinics in schools; and
  • providing mobile, comprehensive dental services at locations that serve individuals who qualify for benefits under specified programs.

Authorizes community based dental residencies.

Authorizes specified agencies to conduct research on oral health issues through FY2019.

Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to make oral health services an essential health benefit.

Removes restrictions on the authority of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide dental care to veterans (thereby requiring dental care on the same basis as other VA-provided medical care and services).

Authorizes the VA, Department of Defense, Bureau of Prisons, and Indian Health Service to carry out demonstration programs to train and employ alternative dental health care providers in order to increase access to dental services.

Directs the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the expansion of dental service coverage pursuant to this Act.

Directs the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the implementation and utilization of expanded dental service coverage under this Act and the demonstration programs authorized by this Act.

Cosponsors 6

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Feb 25, 2015 to Jul 5, 2016, with 3 there on the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
D-MSBennie G. ThompsonOriginalFeb 25, 2015
D-NYCharles B. RangelOriginalFeb 25, 2015
D-DCEleanor Holmes NortonOriginalFeb 25, 2015
D-ILJanice D. SchakowskyMar 4, 2015
D-OHMarcy KapturOct 6, 2015
D-WAJim McDermottJul 5, 2016

Actions 7

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Nov 23, 2015Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
  2. Mar 27, 2015Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
  3. Mar 23, 2015Referred to the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs.
  4. Mar 16, 2015Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.
  5. Mar 6, 2015Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Related bills 1

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
S 570Comprehensive Dental Reform Act of 2015Identical billFeb 25, 2015

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Feb 25, 2015Introduced in House

Support LegiList

This page is free, carries no paywall, and is built and maintained by one person. If the record here is useful to you, a few dollars keeps it going.

Processed by Stripe in a separate window. LegiList never sees card details.

Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.