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June 4, 2025
By Renee Clark, Care Coordinator & Interoperability Manager
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have made it clear that patients must be at the center of our digital ecosystem and are asking one critical question:
How should federal policy evolve to support more connected, patient-centered care?
A few weeks ago, CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) released a Request for Information, seeking public input on the future of:
- Interoperability
- Digital health infrastructure
- Technology-enabled, value-based care
And earlier this week, CMS hosted an in-person listening session to discuss the RFI and how health technology innovations can reduce fraud, cut administrative burdens, and deliver higher-quality care to millions. To me, this is a critical moment for the oral health community to share experiences and highlight the unique needs of dental providers and patients in health data exchange. It’s up to all of us—dental providers, dental service organizations (DSOs), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), dental schools, health IT teams, and oral health leaders—to raise our voices for oral health.
Why Your Comment Matters
Oral health has historically been siloed from broader health IT and care coordination strategies, despite its essential role in overall health.
This RFI offers a distinct platform to raise awareness of the unique needs and barriers oral health providers and patients face. Without input from the oral health community, dental perspectives risk being underrepresented in future policies and funding priorities.
As evidenced by this request, CMS’s goal is to build a future where patients can have:
- Easy access to their overall health records, including dental information
- Digital tools to manage their care across providers
- Customized support for prevention and chronic diseases management
- Resources available to coordinate care without barriers
To better understand why this issue matters, I invite you to explore these resources:
- What Do We Mean by Interoperability in Oral Health?
- Care Coordination and Interoperability
- FDI World Dental Federation’s Consensus Statement on digital health for oral health, a global call to include oral health in national health systems
How and When to Comment
If you are involved in oral health or digital care delivery, we urge you to lend your voice. More specifically, this RFI is aimed at:
- Dental providers, DSOs, and FQHCs
- Dental schools and educators
- Health IT teams, EDR vendors, and data specialists
- Interoperability advocates and policy professionals
- Medical-dental integration (MDI) project teams
The deadline to comment is Monday, June 16, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET, and you can access the RFI here on the Federal Register. You can submit as an individual or on behalf of an organization. And even brief comments help show that oral health stakeholders are engaged and affected.
Please take a few minutes to submit your comment and be part of the movement to integrate oral health into the broader health IT landscape. Your voice can help shape the future of health data and digital infrastructure. Whether you are a provider, educator, advocate, or technologist, your perspective can help influence national priorities and close long-standing gaps in oral health interoperability.