5 Things Oregon: State of Reform Annual Report, CCO 2.0 Draft RFA, Monica Bourgeau

I am looking forward to seeing some of you at the Jan. 24th Kitzhaber Lectureship on Health Policy.  Don Berwick will speaking at The Foundation for Medical Excellence’s annual event.

Until then, here are 5 Things We’re watching in Oregon healthcare for January 2019.

 

With help from Sara Gentzler, Marjie High
and Emily Boerger.

 

1. CCO 2.0 draft RFA released

On Friday, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) released its draft request for applications (RFA) for the new CCO 2.0 contracts. Along with the principal document, the draft RFA includes 16 attachments that prioritize increased value and pay performance, social determinants and health equity, improved behavioral health systems, and sustainable cost growth and financial transparency.

Senior Reporter Emily Boerger breaks down the applicant requirements included in the RFA related to those top priorities. The draft RFA is available for public comment until January 14, and the final RFA will be released January 25, 2019.

 

2. State of Reform’s 2018 Annual Report

As the new year begins, we wanted to take a moment and reflect with you on what your support of State of Reform has allowed us to accomplish — as well as highlight where we are going in 2019. So, we’ve created our 2018 Annual Report, offering a few details about our progress in the last year.

This year, we published 945 original stories, of which 137 stories covered health care in Oregon. We hosted a total of 34 events – including the 2018 Oregon State of Reform Health Policy Conference. We also hired our newest reporter, Sara Gentzler, who joins Emily Boerger, Marjie High, and me in our regular coverage of Oregon health policy.

So, thanks for being such great wind in the sails of our work together in 2018 as we grow and expand State of Reform into 2019!

3. Report: Life expectancy varies widely across Oregon neighborhoods

Officials at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Center of Health Statistics recently dug into national data on life expectancy. They found that the number differs significantly depending on where you live in the state.

A striking example provided by the OHA is that “life expectancy in a swath of southeast Eugene is 87.9 years, while it’s 70.2 years across town in a northwest section of the city.” Statewide, life expectancy ranged from 66.3 years, in a part of central Medford, to 89.1 years, in a part of northwest Portland. Exploring this interactive map shows just how stark the contrast can be neighborhood-to-neighborhood.

4.  Video: Monica Bourgeau, Allevant Solutions

Monica Bourgeau is the Vice President of Business Development for Allevant Solutions. She joins us in this edition of “What They’re Watching” to discuss sustaining critical access hospitals.

“We work with critical access hospitals to partner with their PPS referral partners to create transitions of care to bring patients back to the local communities. So, we not only help develop those partnerships but we also help the critical access hospitals feel more confident in taking more complex patients because they already have on-site radiology, on-site laboratory, on-site PR — they’re very well-equipped to handle those patients, and sometimes it’s just a little bit of extra training or expertise to be able to accommodate them.”

 

 5. Universal Access to Care Work Group “did not achieve consensus” on policy

One year ago, the Universal Access to Care Work Group held their first meeting to develop policy recommendations for the legislature to advance universal and affordable health coverage for all Oregonians. In December, the group released its final report.

The goal to “develop an incremental roadmap” toward such an overhaul proved too complex for the group to achieve; instead, it presented a list of “policy approaches for the legislature to consider.” According to one work group member, “no policy avoided ‘significant disruption and unintended consequences to the existing system.'” Rep. Andrea Salinas said she planned to introduce a few Legislative Concepts before session, but don’t expect a cohesive package of legislation based on the results of the work group.