GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — CHP Berkshires celebrated the reopening of Great Barrington Family Dental at its new brick-and-mortar location on Stockbridge Road, with staff, friends and supports, board, some patients and representatives from MassHealth's Boston office.

 

The state-of-the-art dental practice is the final step in CHP's dental expansion throughout the Berkshires: since 2022, CHP has established practices in North Adams, Adams and Great Barrington, in order to expand dental care access to for thousands of Berkshire County residents. CHP's Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield was, until 2022, CHP's only dental practice.

 

Speaking at the event were CHP CEO Bethany Kieley, Great Barrington dentist Lina Bermudez, State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, Great Barrington Selectboard Chair Stephen Bannon, and CHP board Secretary Arlene Schiff.

 

Since 2021, when CHP lost its commercial lease on its downtown Great Barrington dental practice, patients and staff were relocated to Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield. More recently, some patients received care at the CHP Mobile Dental Unit on site at CHP headquarters in Great Barrington. Now, patients and staff are back "home" in their new facility, which is already busy with patients.

 

CHP's dental expansion came about as fewer and fewer private dental practices in the Berkshires are accepting MassHealth patients, due to low reimbursement rates. As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) CHP Berkshires receives higher reimbursement rates for its dental services. Approximately 20,000 Berkshire County residents rely on MassHealth for their health insurance coverage.

 

"I know I speak for all of us in our practice when I say thank you to our patients who drove to Pittsfield for their dental care during the last two years, and to those who used our Mobile Dental Unit," Bermudez said. "Thank you to our CHP dental leadership team, and our facilities team, and to all who have created this great space for patient care. We're glad to be back in town."

 

CEO Bethany Kieley noted that having fine, new-state-of-the-art facilities is only part of dental care access challenge: Recruiting dentists and dental hygienists to rural communities remains a challenge and wait times for new appointments can be several months.

 

"Even as we celebrate our ribbon cutting today, not surprisingly, we still have more work to do," she said. "While we're excited to have more physical capacity to care for patients, we still need more dentists, hygienists and dental assistants, as recruiting these specialists is a unique challenge in our rural community. As more staff join us, though, we look forward to creating capacity for more and more patients."

 

"Re-establishing a state-of-the-art dental practice in Great Barrington has been a priority for us, as it has created important access to dental services for our South County community. Dental care is an essential part of healthcare, particularly at a community health center like CHP where we're focused on providing whole-person care. As with all of our services, we want everyone in Berkshire County to have access to the excellent care they deserve, regardless of their insurance status or their ability to pay," she added. "Luckily, in the last several years, we've gotten really good at this as we've strengthened our dental services from Northern to Southern Berkshire County—with the addition or expansion of sites in North Adams, Adams and now Great Barrington. We also have the benefit of the longstanding expertise and work of our Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield, our early anchor for excellence in dental care. Our team has worked so hard to make this incredible growth happen."

 

CHP Berkshires cares for about 30,000 Berkshire County area residents with medical, dental, behavioral health, women's health and family services support, in practice locations in North, Central and South County.