The rules, set by level of anesthesia, regulate office settings for procedures for the first time in Oregon. Crafted in the wake of a tragically botched plastic surgery, the plastic surgery society president believes they don’t go far enough.
Our neighbor to the north doled out millions of dollars to its health insurance executives last year, with the CEOs of Community Health Plan of Washington, Group Health Cooperative, Regence BlueShield and Premera BlueCross walking away with hefty paychecks that included six-figure bonuses in filings submitted to Washington’s Insurance Commissioner.
The Oregon Health Authority released $47 million in bonus money along with the first annual report on the coordinated care organizations’ efforts to meet 17 quality metrics. The locally operated health plans for Medicaid clients are doing a good job reducing unnecessary ED visits and hospital stays for chronic conditions, but other metrics the state highlight in the report, such as an alleged increase in developmental screenings for children, are misleading.
The Affordable Care Act expanded the state Medicaid program to 350,000 new members, but it didn’t pay providers as well as a separate reproductive health program for uninsured women, provoking concerns from Rep. Mitch Greenlick that the state may be inadvertently hurting Planned Parenthood and other women’s health providers.
A chief goal of the division is to create more transparency for consumers shopping on Cover Oregon or elsewhere to ensure they know what physicians and services they’ll be getting before they pick a health plan. The division also wants to give clear guidelines to insurers for compliance.
The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases recommends that Sovaldi be used with patients with late-stage liver disease, but state bureaucrats were ready to block coverage for all patients because of the high price tag of the drug and a report from OHSU’s Center for Evidence-Based Policy that raised red flags about the drug’s studies, helping the state in its attempt to get out of paying for treatment.
Public-owned hospitals such as Bay Area, Blue Mountain, Coquille Valley, Curry General, Harney District, Lake District, Lower Umpqua, Pioneer Memorial, Southern Coos and Wallowa Memorial struggle to remain independent.
