(Portland, OR) – Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis, Chief Medical Officer for Health Share of Oregon, the state’s largest coordinated care organization (CCO) serving more than 240,000 Oregon Health Plan members, will testify before the United States Senate Finance Committee this Thursday. The hearing, “Mental Health in America: Where are we now?” will give Congress the opportunity to learn how state and federal health care systems address mental health issues.
Bennington-Davis, a psychiatrist, was invited to testify before the Committee due to her leadership on mental health and addictions services in Oregon, including work on Health Share’s early childhood initiatives such as Project Nurture, which aims to integrate behavioral health and substance use treatment into maternity care, priorities around Kindergarten readiness and promoting early life health, and building coordinated support around children in foster care.
“Oregon’s CCO design has brought new attention to and appreciation of the roles of mental illness and addictions when it comes to costs and poor health outcomes,” said Bennington-Davis. “I think of it as us finally discovering the neck – the CCO model compels us to do a much more thorough job of connecting the brain and the body. Much mental illness, like many physical illnesses, is preventable, and the CCO model encourages us to look upstream toward prevention.”
Health Share’s behavioral health initiatives and programs reflect the collaborative efforts of Health Share and its partners as they work towards a regional system, one in which mental health and addictions services are administered with standardized care management throughout the Tri-County Metro area.
The hearing will convene on Thursday, April 28 at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Bennington-Davis’ written statement will be posted on Health Share’s website following testimony before the Committee.
About Health Share of Oregon
Health Share of Oregon is the state’s largest Medicaid coordinated care organization (CCO), serving more than 235,000 Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. Our mission is to partner with communities to achieve ongoing transformation, health equity, and the best possible health for each individual.
Health Share was founded and continues to be governed by 11 partner organizations serving OHP members: Adventist Health, CareOregon, Central City Concern, Clackamas County, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, Multnomah County, Oregon Health & Science University, Providence Health & Services, Tuality Health Alliance and Washington County.
