The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) benefit year runs from 1 July to 30 June. For the 2026–2027 year, coverage reset on 1 July 2026, which means patients who renewed their eligibility can once again access diagnostic exams, cleanings, fillings, crowns, and other covered services. Managing these patients in your recall system requires three things: tagging them as CDCP-eligible, scheduling targeted outreach at benefit year start, and verifying Sun Life eligibility before every appointment.
Why the Benefit Year Reset Matters for Your Recall List
Many CDCP patients do not realise their annual coverage has reset. They may have used their benefits in late 2025 and assumed there was nothing left to spend. In reality, a new benefit year brings a full reset of covered services, including the comprehensive exam and scaling units that anchor most recall appointments.
For dental offices across Ontario, British Columbia, and the rest of Canada, this reset creates a clear window for proactive outreach. Patients who are overdue for recall but have not booked often respond when they learn their benefits are active again. A short message explaining that their CDCP coverage has renewed for 2026–2027, and that preventive care is covered at up to 100% for qualifying income levels, is one of the highest-conversion recall prompts available to any practice.
Patients who did not renew their CDCP eligibility by 1 June 2026 experienced a gap in coverage when the new benefit year opened. These patients form a separate group in your recall list: they may need to re-apply before they can access benefits again, and staff should not quote CDCP coverage to them until their status is confirmed.
For an overview of how recall systems work and why consistent outreach matters, see our guide to what dental recall is and how it works in Canadian practices.
Step 1: Tag CDCP Patients in Your Recall List
Start by identifying which active patients in your practice management system have indicated they are CDCP-eligible. The most reliable sources are your patient intake forms and any records from previous appointments where CDCP billing occurred through Sun Life.
Create a flag or custom field, most practice management systems support patient categories or note fields, labelled something like “CDCP” or “Government Plan.” Add a secondary note for income tier if the patient has shared that information, since the tier determines how much of each invoice Sun Life reimburses and how much the patient owes at the time of service.
If your intake process does not currently ask about government dental coverage, update your new patient form to include: “Do you currently have coverage through the Canadian Dental Care Plan?” Record the answer in the patient chart so it appears when the front desk pulls the file. This tagging step takes a few seconds per patient and pays off significantly when you run recall campaigns at benefit year start each July.
You should also create a sub-tag for patients whose CDCP coverage lapsed or was not renewed. When you run outreach campaigns, this group receives a different message directing them to check their eligibility status rather than booking directly, which prevents billing surprises at the front desk.
Step 2: Launch a Benefit Year Recall Campaign in July
The start of each CDCP benefit year on 1 July is the single most effective trigger for a targeted recall campaign. Patients who have delayed their cleaning or exam are far more likely to book when they know their coverage is active and, for those in the lowest income tier, completely free at the point of care.
The message does not need to be complicated. The key elements are:
- A clear statement that their CDCP coverage has renewed for 2026–2027
- A reminder of which services are covered, with preventive and diagnostic care most relevant for recall
- A direct invitation to book their next appointment
- A brief note on how billing works so patients understand they do not pay the full fee upfront
Time your first outreach in the first two weeks of July. A second touchpoint in early October captures patients who missed the first message and still have the full year ahead of them to use their benefits. For ready-to-use message formats you can adapt for SMS and email, see our collection of dental hygiene recall letter templates for Canadian practices.
Segment your outreach by CDCP tag rather than sending your July campaign to your entire recall list. CDCP patients respond to benefit-year language; patients on private insurance do not, and mixing the two dilutes your messaging and risks confusing patients about which plan applies to them.
CDCP Coverage by Income Tier
The plan uses a stepped co-payment structure based on adjusted family net income. Understanding which tier each patient falls into helps your team quote costs accurately before treatment begins and prevents billing disputes after the fact. There is no annual dollar maximum under the CDCP.
Patients with adjusted family net income above $90,000 do not qualify for the CDCP. Patients below $70,000 owe nothing at the time of service; your practice bills Sun Life for the full covered amount. The middle two tiers are where most billing questions arise, so it is worth briefing your front desk on how to explain co-pays clearly, and confirming with each patient before their appointment rather than at checkout.
Step 3: Verify Eligibility Before the Appointment
Eligibility under the CDCP is not permanent. Patients must renew annually, and their status can change if they gain access to private dental insurance through a new employer or if their family income crosses the $90,000 threshold. A patient who was CDCP-eligible last year may not be eligible this year, and the only way to know is to check.
Your verification step should happen before the patient arrives, not at the front desk during check-in. Checking eligibility through the Sun Life provider portal while the patient is in the waiting room causes delays and creates a poor experience for both the patient and your staff.
Build eligibility verification into your pre-appointment workflow as a standard task, similar to confirming the appointment date and time. For new CDCP patients, verify during the intake process. For returning patients, verify at least 48 hours before their scheduled appointment. If eligibility cannot be confirmed in that window, contact the patient to clarify: give them the option to proceed knowing they may be responsible for the full fee, or to reschedule while they sort out their status.
Consistent pre-visit verification also reduces the administrative burden of billing errors, which are among the most time-consuming tasks in a busy practice. For more on keeping your schedule full and reducing missed appointments, see our resource on reducing dental no-shows in Canadian clinics.
Step 4: Bill Sun Life Directly
Under the CDCP, your practice bills Sun Life directly for the covered portion of each invoice. Patients cannot seek reimbursement from Sun Life themselves. If your practice collects the full fee from the patient and expects them to submit their own claim, the claim will be rejected and the patient will be left out of pocket for what should have been a covered service.
Step 5: Manage Patients with Lapsed or Non-Renewed Coverage
Patients who did not renew their CDCP eligibility by 1 June 2026 lost access to benefits when the 2026–2027 benefit year opened. When these patients come in for a recall appointment, they may still present their CDCP card or assume they are covered based on previous visits.
Create a sub-tag in your recall system for “CDCP — renewal required” and keep it separate from your active CDCP patient list. When you run your July recall campaign, send these patients a distinct message that notes they may need to re-apply before their next visit and directs them to check their status on the official Canada.ca CDCP page. This avoids the front-desk conversation where a patient expects free treatment and discovers their coverage has lapsed.
For patients who do re-apply and are approved, book their appointment once their new eligibility period is confirmed. Note the date their coverage was reinstated in the patient chart so you have a clear record for billing purposes. Patients who cannot or do not re-apply may be good candidates for a different follow-up path, such as your reactivation programme. For guidance on bringing lapsed patients back to your schedule, see our complete guide to dental patient reactivation.
Using Automation to Manage CDCP Recall at Scale
Manual tracking of CDCP patients across a busy recall list is workable when the numbers are small, but it becomes difficult to maintain accurately as your CDCP patient base grows. Practices in markets with significant CDCP uptake are already finding that manual tagging and campaign scheduling introduces errors, delayed outreach, and missed benefit-year windows.
Recall software that connects to your practice management system can send targeted benefit-year messages automatically when July arrives, segment patients by eligibility tag, and flag accounts where eligibility verification is outstanding before the appointment date. For a detailed look at what to look for when choosing a system, dental recall software built for Canadian practices needs to handle CDCP-specific workflows natively, including the benefit year reset, income-tier co-pay logic, and the distinction between active and lapsed government-plan patients.
DentRecall is designed for exactly this workflow: it connects to your existing PMS to pull patient data, then handles segmented recall outreach so your front desk can focus on conversations that require a human touch rather than building and managing spreadsheets manually.
Ready to manage CDCP patients without the manual tracking?
DentRecall connects to your PMS, segments your recall list by patient type, and sends targeted outreach at every benefit year reset so your team spends time on care, not spreadsheets.
Book a DemoFrequently Asked Questions
When does the CDCP benefit year start and end?
The CDCP benefit year runs from 1 July to 30 June each year. The current 2026–2027 benefit year started on 1 July 2026. Patients must renew their eligibility annually to maintain access to benefits in each new year, and patients who did not renew by 1 June 2026 experienced a gap in coverage at the start of the current year.
How do I verify whether a patient is CDCP-eligible?
Eligibility verification is done through the Sun Life provider portal before the appointment. Sun Life administers the CDCP and handles all claims processing on behalf of the federal government. You cannot rely on a patient's previous eligibility alone, as their status can change year to year depending on their insurance coverage and adjusted family net income. Verify at least 48 hours before each scheduled appointment.
Does the CDCP have an annual dollar maximum?
No. The CDCP does not have an annual dollar maximum. Coverage is determined by the income-based co-payment tier rather than a spending cap. Patients in the lowest income tier, those with adjusted family net income under $70,000, receive 100% coverage on all covered services with no ceiling on the total value of care in a given benefit year.
What dental services are covered under the CDCP?
The CDCP covers diagnostic services such as exams and x-rays, preventive care including cleanings, fluoride treatments, and sealants, basic services including fillings, root canals, and gum disease treatment, major services such as crowns, dentures, and oral surgery, and certain anaesthesia options. Orthodontics is not yet available under the plan. Covered services and fee schedules are reviewed annually by the federal government and administered through Sun Life.
Can a CDCP patient seek reimbursement from Sun Life themselves?
No. The CDCP does not allow patients to pay out of pocket and then submit their own claim to Sun Life for reimbursement. Providers must bill Sun Life directly for the covered portion of each service. Patients are responsible only for their co-pay at the time of treatment, calculated based on their income tier. If a patient pays the full fee and tries to claim it back, the claim will be rejected.
