Coalition for a Healthy Oregon

The spending by doctors groups, nurses, hospitals, dentists and insurers helps underwrite legislators’ campaigns, as political action committees seek to influence legislation and the state budget in Oregon. Groups that gave less have had considerably less clout in Salem.

Oregon Health & Science University secured $200 million from the state it said it needed to move ahead with the Phil Knight Challenge for cancer research, but House Speaker Tina Kotek got chewed up in a failed attempt to resolve a dispute over whether the tertiary hospital would agree to accept all Medicaid patients, even those from FamilyCare, with which OHSU is locked in legal battle.

July 2, 2012 -- Five of the eight Community Care Organizations (CCOs) to receive certification by the State of Oregon on Wednesday included members of the Coalition for a Healthy Oregon (COHO). The Oregon Health Authority’s initial list of certified CCOs identified those who can begin enrolling patients on August 1. OHA is expected to release three more ‘waves’ later this year. The first wave included the following CCOsaffiliated with COHO members:

February 24, 2012 -- The Coalition for a Healthy Oregon (COHO) praised the State Legislature for its overwhelming and bipartisan approval of landmark legislation that creates the blueprint for health care transformation in Oregon.

February 15, 2012 -- The Coalition for a Healthy Oregon praised the State Senate Tuesday for passing Senate Bill 1580, the health care transformation bill that will help strengthen the patient-provider relationship through better coordination of care. “This is a monumental step in the right direction,” said Jeff Heatherington, President and CEO of FamilyCare, Inc. and COHO’s legislative director. “COHO strongly supports transparency and enhancing patient-provider relationships, which is the key to making health care transformation work.”