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OPINION: January 9, 2012 -- This election ought to be about one issue, a referendum on health care reform.

January 6, 2012 – A coalition led by Dr. Dane Smith in Coos Bay County is determined to eliminate dental disease among its children. “I’ve heard it said that holes in people’s teeth reflect holes in their heart, and I think there’s truth to that,” said Smith, an oral surgeon in Brookings. “People who have high self-esteem and high expectations for their lives have fewer cavities.” That’s why it takes a whole community to address the issue.

December 15, 2011 -- Mark Ganz, CEO and president of Cambia Health Solutions (formerly known as The Regence Group), isn’t out of the woods yet.

December 15, 2011— As the Oregon Health Policy Board develops the requirements that coordinated care organizations (CCOs) must meet to deliver care to more than 600,000 Oregonians, they’re faced with finding the right balance between prescriptiveness and flexibility. Those requirements will become part of the business plan legislators will consider when they meet in February.

December 15, 2011 – In July, Dr. Kathleen Brown decided to leave the Coos Bay clinic where she’d been practicing since 1997 and open her own dermatology practice. It’s not uncommon for doctors to strike out on their own, but Brown’s decision had a twist: she decided to eschew the use of CPT codes, a set of medical billing codes required by the American Medical Association for reimbursement by insurers.

December 15, 2011—Getting legislative approval for a business plan that sets the course for transforming the Oregon Health Plan may not come down to simply a yes or no vote, according to Sen. Alan Bates (D-Ashland) and Rep. Tim Freeman (R-Roseburg), who appeared before the Oregon Health Policy Board on Tuesday.

December 14, 2011 -- Mike McCormick will become deputy director of Aging and People with Disabilities (APD) programs in January. That agency is still without a permanent director, following the resignation of James Toews earlier this year.

December 15, 2011 – It may not jibe with the health reform law's message of integration, but the Federal Trade Commission continues to challenge provider mergers on grounds that they're anticompetitive. The courts' reaction last week? Decidedly mixed.

December 14, 2011 -- The Jessie F. Richardson Foundation (JFR) has selected Dr. Benneth Husted as the 2011 recipient of its Ladd Award for Home and Community Based Care. She is the founder and medical director of Housecall Providers, a Portland, OR-based nonprofit that provides primary medical care and hospice services for homebound adult patients.