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 April Physicians prepare to desert HealthFirst Failure of Legacy financial arrangement and competition among insurance companies causes concern. HealthFirst Medical Group is in shambles. Since the financial arrangement between Legacy Health System fell apart, 40% of HealthFirst's physicians have handed in their resignations, giving six month's notice, admitted Pete Perry, MD, board president. More letters are on their way. "The doctors don't have confidence the financial condition at HealthFirst will improve and their incomes will be stabilized or made more predictable," he said. HealthFirst physicians are compensated based on patient volume. If doctors bail out of HealthFirst, it leaves Physician Partners, Inc., which manages HealthFirst, in a very precarious position. Hospitals find their own PET PET's hefty price tag limits availability. Position emission tomography -- or PET -- is the first imaging system to observe biological functioning of the human body, but its reimbursement outlook has traditionally been bleak. Most major HMOs are cautiously approaching coverage of PET scans, which carry a $2,000 price tag. Medicare has been reluctant as well "even after we provided them with reams of documentation about the accuracy of PET scanning," said Joan Washburn, business development manager for PET NET Pharmaceutical Services. Providence St. Vincent and Sacred Heart own the first PET scanners in Oregon, modified state-of-the-art gamma cameras, which cost about $400,000 each. Drug formulary inches forward Task force on voluntary formulary anticipated following legislative session. Once the legislative session adjourns, policymakers anticipate a task force will be convened to discuss plans for a statewide voluntary task formulary, according to D'Anne Gilmore, deputy administrator in the Office of the Oregon Health Plan Policy and Research. "This won't be forced on anyone. We want to encourage the best practices and contain unnecessary drug costs. The pharmaceutical industry has legitimate concerns, but so do the payers. We want to look at quality as well as cost." People watching Neil Goldschmidt joins push to unseat Bill Witt. Neil Goldschmidt has climbed aboard Mitch Greenlick's campaign to unseat State Rep. Bill Witt (R-Portland). The two men have known each other since 1966, when Goldschmidt successfully defended Greenlick in a migrant camp trespass case. The case was thrown out by a federal court judge. "It was the step in establishing the right of Vista workers to go into migrant camps," said Greenlick, who helped Goldschmidt win a seat on Portland's City Council in 1968. Now chairman of OHSU's public health department, Greenlick's ready for the political fray. "I'm a serious candidate and want to leave Oregon a better place for my grandkids." Software incompatibility creates reporting problem Best Choice Administrators still struggles with encounter data on Oregon Health Plan. More than a year after it began trying, the third-party administrator (TPA) in charge of tracking encounter data for Multnomah County CAAPCare hasn't managed to transmit any data to the state. This is the worst reporting problem remaining among the TPAs the contractors are using to track mental health services under the Oregon Health Plan. All the TPAs initially had similar problems in getting their software to communicate with the state's system. But in only three cases do the difficulties linger -- two involve the same TPA. HMO financial data revealed Oregon HMOs lose members in 1998, but not income. The 1998 financial data is in, and four of Oregon's largest HMOs increased their net income -- with Regence HMO Oregon the only exception. Net worth and revenue totals continued to climb. Although assets leaped 21% two years ago, they dipped 2.5% from 1997 to 1998. In a surprising development, Oregon's HMOs appear to be losing ground -- after reporting a 4% drop in membership. Regence led the pack, shifting 48,000 members to its indemnity plan. Adding to the trend, QualMed lost nearly 30,000 members. Providence's exit from Washington resulted in a dip of about 50,000 contracts. Meanwhile, Kaiser picked up the slack, bringing in 15,000 newcomers. Also in this issue... 1998 Corporate Salaries -- here are just a few you'll find:
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