MOSES LAKE - More than 1,000 Basin residents spent Saturday meeting with local and regional healthcare professionals during the Central Washington Health and Wellness Expo at Big Bend Community College.

There were about 60 vendors at the expo, including hospitals, independent clinics and health insurance providers, organizer Tera Redwine said. This is the first year the expo has been held, although a few healthcare providers have held smaller health fairs in the past, she said.

Moses Lake resident Pam Carlson said she decided to go to the expo because she had questions about the new Washington Health Benefit Exchange.

"There's a lot of new regulations and I wasn't sure how it would affect me or my family," she said.

Carlson said she spent a lot of time at the different insurance booths while at the expo.

"It turns out we're covered with my husband's insurance so we don't have to worry about," she said. "But I was so confused before today."

Carlson said she brought her kids along to the expo as well, which turned out to be a good thing.

"I was worried they might be bored, but they had a blast," Carlson said. Her kids all got teddy bears, tie-dye shirts and other goodies, she said.

Eng Insurance agent Karen Connacher said like Carlson, many people she talked to during the expo had questions about the new health exchange.

"The exchange launches Oct. 1 and plans start Jan. 1," she said. "We focused our booth on the exchange because we want to help people understand it."

Other residents used the expo to find out more about local healthcare services, Diane Tribble, of Aging and Adult Care of Central Washington, said.

Tribble said the organization, which has locations in Moses Lake, Wenatchee and Omak, has participated in some of the previous health fairs.

They decided to sign up for a booth at this expo, to meet more people, she said.

"We have a lot of programs that people could benefit from," Tribble said. "We wanted to be somewhere where a lot of these people would be."

One of the programs Aging and Adult Care provides is a family caregiver support program.

"Someone who's taking care of their mom, but their not getting paid they're doing it because it's their family, they might benefit from the program," she said.

They also connect people with wellness and disease prevention programs, long-term care programs, and others, she said.