California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - August 29, 1997

The Office of Medi-Cal Dental Services (OMDS) has historically been understaffed and as a result has often been unable to provide a position statement for Dental Scope hearings. Judges have been instructed to write "default" decisions granting claims where the Office of Dental services does not provide a position statement for a hearing.

The OMDS however has made a concerted effort to provide position statements in orthodontic cases. OMDS considers these high cost cases to be their highest priority. Any judge who has an orthodontic case and has no position statement should not write a "default" grant decision without first attempting to contact Mary La Franco at (916) 229-3111 or CALNET 424-3111. If OMDS has completed a position statement, the judge should request OMDS to fax such statement to the hearing location.

OMDS has advised AAD that on occasions it has sent position statements on orthodontic cases and yet "default" decisions are being written because the judge did not receive the position statement. Since all orthodontic cases are mandatory proposed decisions, the OMDS is not required to adopt the "default" decision. If OMDS had in fact prepared and sent a position statement to AAD prior to the hearing, OMDS will not adopt the "default" decision but rather will schedule a further hearing where another judge will have the position statement available at the hearing.