North Carolina Representative Advocates for Dental Care and Long-Term Care

Representative Beverly Earl of North Carolina has taken her long-time political experiences to the North Carolina legislature. She’s always been an active community member, working on campaigns, registering voters, and getting out the vote.

In 1999, she sponsored a successful bill (HB 60) to reform the long-term care industry by:

• establishing minimum standards to administer medication,
• requiring licensing and disclosure of special care units, such as units for Alzheimer’s patients,
• addressing the provisional license of a facility,
• changing time requirements for handling complaints on the local and state level, and
• establishing an assessment position in local departments of social service.

She notes the particular importance of the new assessment positions in social service departments: “The new positions will be especially helpful in determining whether long-term care services can be provided at home,” says Earl.

With her leadership, the legislature included expanded dental care under CHIP Children’s Health Insurance Program in the Health and Human Services budget. Now children who qualify for CHIP can get, in addition to standard preventive care, fluoride applications twice a year, sealants, simple extractions, and treatments.