The controversy between the Oregon Health Authority and the state’s coordinated care organizations has resulted in yet another unanimous measure from the Oregon House to create transparency and new laws for the state agency to follow.
Now, the health authority and other state agencies will have to report to the Legislature each February about any temporary or emergency rules that the agencies enforce without the usual due process.
“It doesn’t keep agencies from doing this when it’s necessary and appropriate,” said Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Canby, noting times of disease outbreak in humans, animals or plants would be obvious times for emergency rules. “I do think it will make them more thoughtful.”
Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Canby, said he sponsored HB 4106 after the Oregon Health Authority -- through a temporary rule -- made the unpopular decision to reset payments to CCOs in the middle of the year, and to further ask several of the organizations to return millions of dollars that had already been allocated to them.
“We gave them too free a hand. It is time to rein them in and give them clearer guidance,” he said. “We need them to be ethical, transparent, open and friendly. We’ll have data to know if these rules are excessive.”
One CCO, FamilyCare, in the Portland Metro region, has refused to return the $55 million the state says it overpaid, insisting the health authority never did have any right to make it return the money. The CCOs are community-run managed health plans charged with delivering care for the state’s Medicaid system, the Oregon Health Plan.
A separate bill pushed by Rep. John Davis, R-Wilsonville, passed the House unanimously on Monday, and prohibited the health authority from any more “clawbacks” unless directed by the federal government. However, the Oregon Health Authority has been working behind the scenes to undermine the bill by delaying its effective date till next year.
The Oregon Health Authority has been conspicuously withdrawn as the Legislature curtails its powers this session. The agency declined to testify on House Bill 4141 -- which restricts its ability to change local service areas for CCOs -- and asked only for minor changes to HB 4107 before it passed the House Health Committee.
Kennemer said the health authority submitted no testimony on HB 4106, which cleared the House Committee on General Government with unanimous support. The Oregon Departments of Agriculture, of Fish & Wildlife and of Justice all expressed resistance to the initial bill -- which restricted emergency rules. The revision merely asks for them to produce an annual report on such rules.
“We were going to set criteria,” Kennemer explained. “We found out that was going to be very difficult,” -- so the legislators backed off.
Rep. David Gomberg, D-Lincoln City, the co-sponsor of HB 4106, did not mention the health authority in his speech, instead alluding to controversial decisions regarding natural resources among the other state agencies.
