Oregon Health Forum

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting “The Dental Disconnect,” a crucial discussion about rethinking Oregon’s oral health care system to increase access.

“We cannot recruit our way out of this. We need to think holistically about the system.” — Ahmed Farag, D.D.S., MBA, Oral Health and Dental Director, Oregon Health Authority.

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Oregon Health Forum is the only independent, nonprofit in the state convening health care stakeholders to confront and work through urgent policy issues. Our sponsors make that possible.

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Today at 12:30 PM | Webinar

Dr. Rosemarie Hemmings, CEO of Black Therapist Company, has spent over 30 years advancing health equity and has been instrumental in integrating social determinants of health and social work into dentistry.

“When someone sits in your chair, they’re a human being with a life — and that life impacts what you’re seeing in their mouth.”

Join us today as Dr. Hemmings moderates our discussion on how to improve oral health across Oregon.

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🔗tinyurl.com/mjyarxjp - Dr. Ahmed Farag, Oregon’s State Oral Health and Dental Director, brings a statewide perspective on expanding access and advancing equity in oral health care.

“We can’t afford to be complacent. The policies and systems we build today will shape health outcomes for generations.”

A healthcare executive and educator with international experience across clinical practice and health system leadership, he remains committed to innovation, education and public service.

Dr. Manu Chaudhry, President of Capitol Dental Care, brings a systems-level lens to the challenges shaping dental access and care delivery.

He has championed medical-dental integration and new models of care aimed at improving outcomes for underserved communities.

As he stated in a 2024 Becker's Healthcare interview, “There’s such an increased amount of regulation… what would otherwise be known as administrative burden,” contributing to workforce strain and access challenges.

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Lisa Bozzetti, Dental Director at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, brings both local and national perspective on expanding dental access.

Over nearly two decades, she has grown integrated dental services across clinics, schools and primary care settings, serving Oregon Health Plan members and other underserved communities.

As President-Elect of the National Network for Oral Health Access, she helps advance strategies nationwide focused on prevention, workforce, research and systems-building — and brings that perspective back to Oregon.

As she shared about her work at Virginia Garcia, “We are resourceful and creative because we have to be.”

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Dr. Michael Shirtcliff, a longtime leader in dental care delivery, brings decades of experience working within Oregon’s Medicaid system — and a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities to expand access.

He has worked closely with Medicaid providers through RMS Dental and Equity Dental, and previously helped build one of Oregon’s largest dental care organizations - Advantage Dental - serving Oregon Health Plan members.

In 2025 testimony on HB 3923 — focused on the dental care organizations (DCOs) that manage dental care for Oregon Health Plan members — he noted, “Patients need choices. Providers need choices. They must have the ability to face a DCO and fight for their patients.”

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State Representative Hai Pham, DMD, a pediatric dentist and legislator, brings a front-line perspective on Oregon’s dental access challenges — and the policy changes needed to address them.

In 2025, he supported HB 2597 to increase dental reimbursement rates for Oregon Health Plan providers — a key factor in expanding access — though the effort faced legislative and budgetary hurdles. As he noted in testimony, “Inadequate reimbursement is one of the most common barriers to accepting OHP.”

While broader reforms to Medicaid rate-setting were enacted in 2026, challenges to improving dental access remain.

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When a toothache hits, where do you go? For too many Oregonians, it’s the emergency room. Across the state, provider shortages and coverage gaps make routine dental care hard to access. For Oregon Health Plan members, it’s far worse: only one in four adults and fewer than half of children see a dentist each year.

Join Oregon Health Forum to explore how we got here — and what policy changes it will take to build a better system of care.

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A severe shortage of clinicians, high burnout, an aging workforce and limited Medicaid and Medicare acceptance is straining primary care access in Oregon, backing up the system for everyone as people flock instead to urgent care, the ER or specialists for routine care.

But crisis also sparks creativity.

Join Oregon Health Forum to hear about emerging - and re-emerging - models of primary care and the capacity to take them to scale.

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Oregon Health Forum advances health policy through community dialogue - needed now more than ever. We are grateful to our annual sponsors, The Heatherington Foundation for Innovation and Education in Health Care and CareOregon, for supporting conversations like “Oregon’s Primary Care on the Brink”, shaping solutions to Oregon’s primary care access challenges. - https://www.oregonhealthforum.org/

AFTER VISIT SUMMARY

Tried to see a primary care doctor in Oregon lately? Average wait times - even in Portland - are now 45 days, double the national average. It’s not about lack of insurance - it’s a drastic shortage of primary care providers and too few who still accept Medicaid or Medicare.

The result: patients packing the ER or pinging specialists for low-level care, backing up the system for everyone.

Policy makers and providers on an OHF panel today landed on some places to focus, including:

Team-based care with solid models to pay for it.

Common metrics for measuring quality care so that clinics aren’t crunching dozens of different data points for different insurers just to get paid. “I have a fulltime staff of 10 that are just tracking the metrics,” said panelist Mark Meyers, M.D., Springfield Family Physicians.

Loan forgiveness for newly minted providers who commit to primary care and other workforce incentives.

Medicaid CCOs partnering more closely with clinics, and amplifying the basic truth that a health care system that values treating illness more than preventing it costs far more and supports people far less.

OHA is leaning in: “We know primary care is foundational. We know improvement is needed and we are committed to bringing parties together to collectively solve the problem,” said Chris DeMars, Director of Oregon Health Authority's Delivery System Innovation Office.

Antonio Germann, M.D., in his work as vice chair of the Oregon Health Policy Board, sees traction and teamwork. “We are going to make the system a bit more simple and not drive people out.”

State Senator Lisa Reynolds, a pediatrician, is determined: “When we talk about health, it’s primary care. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Let’s make primary care the phoenix that rises from the ashes and that includes where we spend our money.”

Catch Part II (https://wp.me/p34Ikx-2f0) of our Primary Care on the Brink series April 7, 3 pm to 5 pm, on the U of O’s new Northeast Portland campus (formerly Concordia U) as innovators discuss new - and re-emerging - models of care.