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About five years ago, Oregon adopted an innovative Medicaid system that enabled the state to expand health care to nearly 1 million people today. But the system does not have a steady source of funds. This year Oregon's Medicaid funding gap was $950 million.
Cover Oregon tried to open its legislative oversight committee to the public, only to have technical errors shut the meeting down 12 minutes after it began when the public telephone line failed to work.
The Tuesday meeting was intended to be the first public meeting of the legislative oversight committee, which the Legislature had created to oversee the work of Cover Oregon. Little was known about when these meetings were actually taking place because they were kept secretive and held without access to the public or the media, in possible violation of the Public Meetings Law.
https://katubim.s3.amazonaws.com/co_assessment%281%29.pdfThe Cover Oregon debacle has cost one of the most recognizable leaders in state government his job.
Dr. Bruce Goldberg, who left his post as the director of the Oregon Health Authority in December to fill in atop Cover Oregon, will stay on at the insurance exchange until a permanent replacement is found next month, but he will not be returning in any form to the health authority when his work at the exchange is done, Gov. John Kitzhaber told reporters Thursday.
Cover Oregon has given up on having a fully functional website by the end of open enrollment on March 31.
“We do not intend to launch the portal this month,” said Aaron Karjala, the Cover Oregon chief information officer. “The runway to getting the enrollments is too short. We can’t be assured it will improve our performance to get us to maximum enrollment.”
Acting Cover Oregon Director Dr. Bruce Goldberg hinted to the House Health Committee on Wednesday that Cover Oregon could go completely online by February, even as Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, told the director that the state should shut the whole exchange down.
December 18, 2012 -- The Oregon Health Authority wants to give financial bonuses to the new coordinated care organizations if they can show good healthcare access as well as emphasize preventive practices such as mental health screening and good maternal healthcare.
