§280k–3 Updating National Oral Healthcare Surveillance Activities

Summary

The Secretary of Health and Human Services must update and improve the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) to better track oral health. Each State must send a report to the Secretary no later than 5 years after March 23, 2010, and every 5 years after that. The oral health measures the Secretary makes for PRAMS must be used by States in those reports. Money may be provided as needed to do this. The Secretary must also add tooth-level checks to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and update those parts at least every 6 years. "Tooth-level surveillance" means a clinical exam of every surface of every tooth, including any additions set by the CDC’s Division of Oral Health. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality must verify dental use, spending, and coverage in the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey by doing a look-back analysis. Funds were authorized for fiscal years 2010–2014 to expand the National Oral Health Surveillance System from 16 States to all 50 States, territories, and the District of Columbia, and it must include a measure of early childhood tooth decay.