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Seasonal Workers Face Higher Barrier to Qualify for Medicaid

Project Access Now has found that poor people with unsteady incomes are held to a different standard than those who make a consistent amount each month. The net result is that some low-wage seasonal employees are shut out of the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program for the poor.

By: Chris Gray

May 25 2018

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FamilyCare to End Remaining Health Plans

Five months after the Portland-based nonprofit stopped offering Medicaid-funded health coverage, it will also cease to offer its remaining Medicare Advantage plans.

In yet another blow for what was once one of the Portland area’s largest providers of health coverage, FamilyCare has been authorized to shut down its Medicare Advantage plans effective June 30. Roughly 4,100 people in the Portland area and Clatsop County will be affected.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 16 2018

Kieko Okma shares healthcare lessons from around the globe at the Oregon Health Forum on Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

Lynne Terry / The Lund Report

Experts Find Global Lessons for U.S. Healthcare

Universal care is an achievable goal, but it requires an understanding of the political landscape, panelists said Wednesday at the Oregon Health Forum.

The United States has a lot to learn from how other industrialized nations provide healthcare to their citizens – but it will take incremental change and a willingness to act before this country can achieve widespread coverage, two experts in health policy aid Wednesday morning at the Oregon Heal

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 23 2018

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Drugmakers Blamed for Blocking Generics Have Jacked Up Prices , Cost U.S. Billions

An analysis shows that drug companies that may have worked delay the entrance of cheaper competitors onto the market, which resulted in higher prices and cost taxpayers more money over time.

Makers of brand-name drugs called out by the Trump administration for potentially stalling generic competition have hiked their prices by double-digit percentages since 2012 and cost Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016, a Kaiser Health News analysis has found.

By: Sydney Lupkin

May 23 2018

The Oregon State Capitol.

M.O. Stevens

Legislature Rubber-Stamps Brown’s Tax Break for Sole Proprietors

Even as the Legislature debates reducing classroom sizes and potential cuts to services for disabled kids, Brown pushes a tax break that will cost the state $25 million a biennium and go to sole proprietor businesses with as much as $5 million in profits.

By: Chris Gray

May 22 2018

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More Oregonians Had Health Insurance in Q1 of 2018 – But Fewer Got it at Work

Providence Health Plan covers more Oregonians than any other insurer, including a significant share who buy individual plans on the Affordable Care Act-created exchange.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 18 2018

Central City Concern Needs a Weekend Clinical Program Lead

Come check out our jobs from Cascadia Behavioral Health, Oregon Rural Action, and more.

Central City Concern is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide comprehensive solutions to ending homelessness and achieving self-sufficiency.

By: Rian Sands

May 23 2018

Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

Photo by Josh Partee - Architectural Resources Group / CC BY-SA 2.5

Coos and Lane Counties Now Lead State in People Sent to State Mental Hospital

People sent to the hospital to be treated after they are arrested for crimes has been a serious problem in Oregon for several years, but while Marion and Multnomah County have made progress, other counties, especially Coos, continue to send more than their share out of their community to the high-cost Oregon State Hospital.

By: Chris Gray

May 18 2018

Lund Report Launches Website Overhaul

Redesign will better highlight our hard-hitting stories, and will give premium subscribers a better experience.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 18 2018

Insurers Want Rate Hikes (Mostly), Despite Improving Finances

Lane and Yamhill county residents will have more health insurance marketplace options in 2019.

Individuals buying Affordable Care Act health plans for 2019 are likely to see rate hikes next year, if most the state’s seven domestic health insurers have their way, according to rate requests submitted to state regulators this week. But it’s not all bad news.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 16 2018

PEBB Makes $9.4 Million in Cuts to Keep Under Budget Cap

The board held off on increasing deductibles, but increased the out-of-pocket maximum for most plans, as well as emergency room fees. The board decided to bring the administration for its Moda Health plans in-house with self-insurance.

The Public Employee Benefit Board voted to hold off on increased deductibles and other unpopular cuts to healthcare benefits for state workers while still trimming $9.4 million from 2019 expenses to keep spending under the inflation cap set by the Legislature.

By: Chris Gray

May 16 2018

Reproductive Rights Groups Gird for Abortion Ballot Fight

Oregon Life United says it’s gathered 100,000 signatures for a ballot measure that would bar public funding of abortions, curtailing access for poor women. Planned Parenthood and its allies may need to spend $2 million to defeat such a ballot measure.

Abortion rights are in retreat across the United States, but Oregon Democrats went to the barricades a year ago to push the state in the other direction -- guaranteeing the ability to get an abortion at no extra cost for almost all women, even immigrants living here without legal permission.

By: Chris Gray

May 11 2018

Behavioral Health Director to Leave Oregon Health Authority

Word of Royce Bowlin’s planned departure comes shortly after OHA Director Patrick Allen announced a reorganization of the agency.

The Oregon Health Authority’s behavioral health director, Royce Bowlin, is resigning effective July 3, prompting concern from advocates that high turnover in recent years is detracting from efforts to address addiction and mental health in the state.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 11 2018

Can Developers and Service Providers Work Together on Housing for the Mentally Ill?

Oregon is under pressure to improve the way it delivers care for people with serious mental illness, a problem compounded by the West Coast housing crisis.

Chris Bouneff has been agitating for years for more housing for people living with mental illness.

By: Chris Gray

May 10 2018

Dr. Danny Jacobs Will Leave Texas to Serve as OHSU’s Fifth President

Jacobs will receive base pay of $1.1 million per year – with the possibility of bonuses as high as $476,025.

OHSU’s Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to name Dr. Danny Jacobs as the institution’s next president, effective Aug.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 8 2018

OHSU Physician’s Emergency Department Tale Prompts Outpouring of Tearjerkers on Twitter

More than 415,000 people from around the globe have shared their own stories or reacted to the Tweet.

As an emergency room researcher, Dr. Esther Choo can spend years working on projects on healthcare policy.

By: Lynne Terry

May 8 2018

Digging into CCO Reimbursements

The Lund Report spoke with experts at the Oregon Health Authority to dig into recent rate increases announced for the state’s Medicaid-funded coordinated care organizations. Here’s what they had to say.

Oregon’s coordinated care organizations are getting a raise from the state – about $8 more per Medicaid member per month than they expected to receive in 2018.

By: Courtney Sherwood

May 4 2018

The Future of Coordinated Care to Take Center Stage

The Oregon Health Forum looks at CCO 2.0 on June 21, to learn what changes are ahead.

The future of coordinated care is at stake as state officials begin wrestling with new contracts that will be released n

By: Diane Lund Muzikant

May 1 2018

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Health Insurance Executives Commanded Large Salaries in 2017

Several Oregon and Washington health insurance CEOs retired and took with them multi-million-dollar paychecks

Health insurance executives earned hefty paychecks in 2017, according to records obtained from the insurance divisions in Oregon, Washington and Utah by The Lund Report.

By: Diane Lund-Muzikant

May 2 2018

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