Dental Equipment Revolving Loan Program
The Dental Equipment Revolving Loan Program is a direct loan program designed to assist borrowers with the purchase, replacement, or upgrading of equipment for use in a dental care facility necessary to expand access to dental care in a state or federally designated shortage area in Maine. This program is administered by the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) under agreement with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Eligibility
Borrowers may be private practitioners (non-profit or for-profit), clinics, groups, partners or solo practice arrangements.
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The borrower must be undertaking a project which will assist in establishing or expanding a dental care practice in a state or federally designated dental health professional shortage area (HPSA) in Maine, as determined by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS);
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The business must be credit-worthy and reasonably likely to repay its obligations, including the proposed loan;
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The project must be necessary to expand access to dental care in Maine;
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Equipment may be fixed on site or portable;
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The borrower (based on dental practice type) must be able to establish the following:
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Non-profit dental practices must establish that they are accepting new MaineCare patients and provide a sliding fee scale to individuals with income up to 200% of the federal poverty level;
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Private dental practices must establish that they are accepting new MaineCare patients or that their patient mix includes at least 20% MaineCare members;
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The borrower must agree to provide such reports and information throughout the term of the loan as are required by DHHS and FAME;
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The project must be reviewed and pre-approved by DHHS.
For information on state designated HPSA areas, contact the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care in DHHS at (207) 287-5524. A map of federally designated dental HPSA areas in Maine can be viewed here.
An approved project must be necessary to expand access to dental care in Maine. Equipment used primarily for cosmetic dentistry purposes will not be considered necessary.
The loan amount shall not be less than $10,000 or more than $50,000. A borrower may obtain more than one program loan, if eligible, but shall not have a total principal balance outstanding in the loan program at any one time of more than $50,000.
The interest rate will be fixed at the rate of 5.5% annually. The loan term shall generally not exceed five years. Loan payments may be based on periods longer than five years, provided that such loans shall be paid in full at the end of the five year period.
The borrower shall pay a non-refundable Commitment fee of 1% upon acceptance of the Commitment. At closing, the borrower shall pay FAME’s legal fee and all out-of-pocket closing costs and expenses.
All of the following documents must be completed order to complete the loan application process:
Complete and submit to:
Dental Equipment Revolving Loan Program
Attn: Oral Health Program
11 State House Station
286 Water Street, 5th Floor
Augusta, ME 04333-0011
For questions regarding pre-approval, contact the Maine Department of Health and Human Services at 207-287-2361.
Once your request has been pre-approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, you must submit the following documents within 30 days of the date on the pre-approval letter.
All of the following documents must be completed order to complete the loan application process:
Complete and sumit to:
FAME
PO Box 949
5 Community
Drive Augusta, ME 04332
Please remember funding may be limited. Therefore, if your loan application is not received by FAME within 30 days of pre-approval, you may lose your opportunity to secure funding and will have to re-apply to DHHS.