Jan Johnson

Patient Advocate Urges Providers to Teach Patients how to be ‘Effective Rather than Offensive Advocates’ for their Care

Institute for Healthcare Improvement faculty member, Duke University Medical Center patient advocate and life-long patient Tiffany Christensen offered what she called a “bed’s eye view” to the Oregon Patient Safety Forum on how to create an “authentic partnership” between patients and providers.

Tiffany Christensen describes herself as “born with the gift of cystic fibrosis,” learning and growing from her disease. But by age 21, she was sick all the time; she was on oxygen, weighed 95 pounds and had 25 percent lung capacity when she got the call for a lung transplant.

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Jan Johnson

First meeting of Early Learning Council and Oregon Health Policy Board shows “unprecedented” shared goals, agreement on tactics

Children and families who need support to get better health and early learning outcomes will get it more often and earlier, according to a draft proposal for a joint commitment. Now the two bodies must figure out the tactics to deliver on big goals.

At the first-ever joint meeting of the two bodies, the OHPB and Early Learning Council outlined a draft plan to work together on their shared goals.

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Jan Johnson

Insurance, Hospital Execs Foresee More Competition, Consolidation

Health plan and health system leaders agree the future of healthcare in Oregon includes more mergers and acquisitions and this state will remain one of the nation’s most competitive insurance markets -- but they say a shakeout is coming.

Some 300 brokers, carrier representatives and others packed the Lloyd Center DoubleTree for the Portland Association of Health Underwriters CEO Forum Roundtable on Wednesday to hear predictions from industry leaders.

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Jan Johnson

Documentary Seeks to Unite Employers Fed Up with Escalating Healthcare Insurance Costs

Now Health Care for All Oregon hopes to take the show on the road to build the business case for a single-payer system – particularly with the business community.

FIX IT: Healthcare at the Tipping Point, a documentary made by business owner Richard Master, CEO of MCS Industries Inc., the nation’s leading supplier of wall and poster frames, describes the 35-year-old company’s challenges staying competitive in a labor-intensive industry with razor-thin margi

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Jan Johnson

Refurbished Public Health Advisory Board Tackles Public Health Modernization, will help identify how to distribute money

Dubbed “PHAB 2.0,” a beefier, governor-appointed Public Health Advisory Board met for the first time Friday since the passage of HB 3100, the legislation that bulked it up with broader scope as a subcommittee to the Oregon Health Policy Board (OHPB) that can require public health authorities to access their current ability to implement foundational capabilities and programs and then tackle the job of helping them modernize.

There’s significant disparity among public health departments, Charlie Fautin, public health director for Benton County, told the newly seated Public Health Advisory Board on Friday.

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Jan Johnson

OHSU Reform Experts Weigh in on Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act was expected to revolutionize healthcare in the US. But is access to healthcare easier? Have costs gone up or down? A Portland City Club forum puts tough questions to Oregon Health & Science University professors.

Healthcare is a $3 trillion industry in the U.S. with one out of every $5 passing through the hands of someone working in the industry, Dr. Samuel Metz of Physicians for a National Health Program, told a City Club audience Monday night.

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Jan Johnson

Lynne Saxton Reveals Her Top 10 List

The director of the Oregon Health Authority mentioned the One Eligibility system, controlling pharmacy costs, modernizing public health and regulating marijuana when she spoke at the Health Policy Board last week.

The “One Eligibility” enrollment and eligibility for Medicaid system which replaced the old Oracle system tops Lynn Saxton’s priority list. “We have to be excellent in this space. This is not the glamour stuff.

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Jan Johnson

OHA Prepares Statewide RFP to Implement Tele-mentoring and Reduce Specialty Referrals

The Oregon Healthcare Workforce Committee probed Oregon’s foray into “tele-mentoring” through Project ECHO, developed at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to increase access to specialty treatment in rural and underserved areas by giving front-line clinicians support to manage patients with complex conditions such as hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain and behavioral health disorders.

In 2013, HealthShare used some of its transformation dollars to launch a Project ECHO pilot on psychiatric medication management with Oregon Health & Science University.

Now a second “cohort on Oregon’s North Coast has launched with Columbia Pacific CCO taking the lead.

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Jan Johnson

Cannabis Task Force Looks at Ways to Expand Research

The cannabis plant is among the most researched substances with 22,000 published studies, but ethical, political, legal and practical barriers leave much of that research wanting. Now a newly convened task force of people from the educational, judicial, industry and scientific sectors have begun looking at ways to structure and fund research and possibly locate a cannabis growing site for research.

Even though 23 states and the District of Columbia have enacted medical cannabis programs, federal hurdles make it difficult to perform research. Until recently, universities have been reluctant to get involved fearing risk to their federal funding.

By: 
Jan Johnson

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