Dr. Bruce Goldberg

The former director of the Oregon Health Authority says he's taking life easy and any rumors about his succession plan are unfounded.

The fallout from the Cover Oregon debacle will not be limited to the failed online insurance exchange and could have major repercussions throughout Oregon’s health system and the coordinated care organization reform efforts, largely due to the loss of longtime public servant Dr. Bruce Goldberg. Last week, Gov. John Kitzhaber announced Goldberg’s resignation -- the health policy leader took responsibility for his role in the state’s failure to effectively manage lackluster web developer Oracle. While Goldberg headed up the Oregon Health Authority, the California technology giant sent Oregon a large infrastructure of bad codes rather than the functioning Amazon.com-style website it had promised, leaving Oregon as the only state where consumers cannot sign up for private health insurance online without assistance.

Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Portland, released a bill Tuesday that could allow parents who qualify for Cover Oregon subsidies to take their kids out of the Oregon Health Plan and instead buy subsidized insurance on the exchange for them.

Sept. 11, 2013 — Gov. John Kitzhaber tasked the Oregon Health Policy Board with four areas to hold down healthcare costs, including greater oversight of rate requests by insurance companies. But the state health director, Dr. Bruce Goldberg, downplayed rate review as a way of bringing down costs at Tuesday’s meeting of the policy board.

Before leaving state government, however, Speight had some words of wisdom about the future of coordinated care organizations.

June 7, 2012—Many were shocked when two large, publicly traded companies sent letters of intent to the Oregon Health Authority expressing their intention to apply to become a coordinated care organization. Now it’s not clear if they, or a third out-of-state organization, will even apply.

April 27, 2012—Three prominent critics of the country’s current healthcare system and ardent reform advocates appeared in Portland today to discuss their views on health reform, President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and what ought to be done to ensure that everyone has access to quality healthcare.

April 16, 2012--The Oregon Health Insurance Exchange wants to train and use insurance agents to help uninsured individuals and small businesses purchase insurance starting in 2014. But questions remain about the role of insurance agents and their impact on consumers who may rely on them for advice.

April 12, 2012—A presentation about the number of organizations intending to become coordinated care organizations (CCOs) by August drew little discussion from the Oregon Health Policy Board on Tuesday.The authority received 47 letters of intent from every county and area of the state. “We look at that as being an enthusiastic response,” Judy Mohr Peterson, the authority’s director of medical assistance programs, told the board. “We have a lot of interest.”