Oregon Lawmakers, Health Authority Weigh In On Health Care’s Future
Oregon health care stands at a crossroads.
COVID-19 has laid bare inequities and shortcomings in Oregon’s health care and behavioral health systems, including a workforce crisis and public health problems that hit marginalized communities harder than others.
Meanwhile, Oregon Health Authority officials are in the midst of preparing the state’s next five-year Medicaid program, which they will send to federal officials for approval early next year. They want to give coordinated care organizations — which insure Medicaid members — more flexibility to cover services for patients that aid their overall health, like housing assistance. That plan will be the basis of the state’s contracts with CCOs, which will be reached by January 2023.
…
Sen. Deb Patterson, chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, said the state needs to look for ways to make sure money goes for direct services, such as mental health.
“We’re not supporting our health care providers,” Patterson, D-Salem, said. “We’re spending a whole lot of money on overhead.”
That includes tasks like coding and billing, Patterson said.
"We just have to invest more wisely in our health care system," Patterson said. "Patients have been squeezed forever. What we're seeing now is providers getting squeezed."
By Ben Botkin – The Lund Report
October 4, 2021