1.1 	A bill for an act
1.2 	relating to health; establishing a grant program for dental clinics to operate and 
1.3 	provide emergency dental care.
1.4 	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.5 	Section 1. DENTAL CLINIC OPERATING GRANT PROGRAM.
 1.6 	(a) The commissioner of administration shall issue grants to dental clinics for the purpose 
1.7 	of ensuring that dental clinics are able to continue to operate their practices during the 
1.8 	declaration of a peacetime emergency in order to provide emergency dental care for patients 
1.9 	who might otherwise seek dental care at a hospital emergency department. The commissioner 
1.10 	shall prescribe the application and process for issuing the grants.
1.11 	(b) To be eligible for a grant under this section during the period in which the peacetime 
1.12 	emergency is in effect, a dental clinic must agree to the following:
1.13 	(1) accept any patient in need of emergency dental services regardless of the patient's 
1.14 	financial limitations, public assistance, or insurance status; and
1.15 	(2) provide access to a dentist 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for emergency dental 
1.16 	services and must provide on the clinic's website a telephone number for patients to call in 
1.17 	an emergency.
1.18 	(c) Notwithstanding paragraph (b), clause (1), once a dental clinic has provided 
1.19 	unreimbursed emergency dental services to uninsured or underinsured patients that total an 
1.20 	amount that equals 50 percent of the grant amount received by the dental clinic based on 
1.21 	the dental clinic's usual and customary reimbursement rates, the dental clinic is no longer 
2.1 	required to accept patients who are uninsured or whose insurance coverage does not cover 
2.2 	the necessary emergency services.
2.3 	(d) The amount of each grant shall not exceed $10,000 per clinic. If applications for 
2.4 	grants exceed the available appropriation, the commissioner shall give priority to dental 
2.5 	clinics that are eligible for critical access dental provider payments under Minnesota Statutes, 
2.6 	section 256B.76, subdivision 4.
2.7 	(e) Each grantee shall provide the commissioner with the number of patients the dental 
2.8 	clinic provided emergency services to during the peacetime emergency and a description 
2.9 	of the services provided within 60 days of the end of the peacetime emergency.
2.10 	(f) For purposes of this section, "peacetime emergency" means any peacetime emergency 
2.11 	declared by the governor in an executive order that relates to the COVID-19 disease outbreak.

2.12 	EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective the day following final enactment.

2.13 	Sec. 2. APPROPRIATION.
 2.14 	$10,000,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 2020 from the general fund to the commissioner 
2.15 	of administration to award as grants to dental clinics pursuant to section 1. This is a onetime 
2.16 	appropriation and is available until June 30, 2021.

2.17 	EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective the day following final enactment.