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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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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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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