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The Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce will host its next State of Healthcare breakfast on June 16, with a morning discussion on the challenges, updates and innovations shaping healthcare in the Twin Lakes region.
The event runs from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the new Mountain Home Community Center, 1 Community Center Drive. Breakfast and networking begin at 7:30 a.m., and the presentation follows from 8 to 9 a.m.
Boston Mountain Rural Health Center is the event’s sponsor. Steven Reeves, a board member with the center, will introduce the program.
This year’s featured speakers are Dr. Larry Gould of Gould Dentistry & Advanced Aesthetics and Baxter Health President and CEO Ron Peterson. The pairing follows the format of the first State of Healthcare in early 2025, which combined Peterson’s healthcare update with a local dentist’s look at dental care across the region.
The breakfast continues the Chamber’s “State of” series, which has also featured forums on education and on city and county government.
At the 2025 event, Peterson described both the pressures and the strengths of rural healthcare. He said Arkansas hospitals receive among the lowest Medicare reimbursements in the country, and that nearly 60% of the area’s population lives with chronic disease, many with more than one.
Peterson also made the case for Baxter Health remaining independent. He said staying independent lets the system answer to the community rather than to corporate offices in other states, and warned that hospitals folded into larger systems often lose services and jobs.
On the dental side, dentist Dr. Brad Coleman told the 2025 crowd that Mountain Home has become a regional hub for dental care as dentists in smaller towns retire without replacement. He pointed to providers who had left communities such as Calico Rock and Flippin with no one to take their place.
Coleman said the picture in Mountain Home itself was brighter, citing several dentists under age 34 who had moved to the area and put down roots. He also announced a new pediatric dental clinic, Natural Smiles, which opened later that year to serve thousands of young patients who had been traveling out of the region for specialty care.
The breakfast is free to attend, but registration is required. Residents can register at bit.ly/StateofHealthcare26 or by contacting the Chamber at 870-425-5111.
