The Point Roberts Hospital District discussed several new initiatives during its regular monthly meeting on October 8, including efforts to bring a mobile dental clinic to the community and prepare for possible changes in Medicaid coverage.
District superintendent Javid Nouripour announced that he had reached out to a mobile dental clinic to provide services to the residents in Point Roberts. “We’re trying to close that gap in service,” Nouripour said. “We don’t have dental at all here, and it would be nice to have.”
Dr. Sean Bozorgzadeh expressed full support for the idea, saying, “As for the mobile dental clinic, we are fully supportive of that.”
While there is space for a mobile dental unit to park near the Point Roberts Clinic, the parking lot falls under the Fire District’s jurisdiction. Nouripour said he will need to formally request permission from the fire district before the clinic can operate there. “The fire district assured me that it shouldn’t be an issue,” he said, “but it has to go through their official process with a meeting and a resolution.”
In other business, Nouripour shared that he is exploring new funding opportunities through the Rural Health Clinic Association of Washington (RHCAW) to help offset potential losses in Medicaid reimbursement. The RHCAW offers extra financial support to rural clinics that use sliding scale fees to make care more affordable for low-income residents.
“I think a lot of people in the community would qualify under that program, and it could give us more stability without relying directly on the hospital district’s budget,” said Nouripour. “We’re going to see a loss in coverage from that (Medicaid change), and I want to have safety nets in place for those citizens, since they don’t really have anywhere else to go.”
The board also passed a resolution to change its regular meeting date from the second Wednesday of the month to the first Wednesday at 7 p.m. beginning in December.
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