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 January Legacy makes $56 million... with some help from United Way Strong hospital performance boosts income for non-profit provider. Legacy Health System boasted about its $56 million profit in a newsletter sent to physicians. At the same time, United Way announced it was giving Legacy's Visiting Nurses Association $48,143. "On the surface, you can say, 'Geez, how can they do that?'" said Scott Palmer, director of Willamette Falls Hospital's Foundation. "You have to ask, 'What do they do with that $56 million?'" OHSU faces 'whistleblower' suit Former surgical resident says the Oregon Health Sciences University kicked him out for raising awkward questions. In a federal wrongful termination suit filed against OHSU last fall, David Ostad, MD, claimed he was dropped from the University's plastic surgery program because he voiced concerns about his boss's billing practices. Ostad's suit does not assert that billing practices actually were illegal or fraudulent, but the issue remains a sensitive one for the University, coming as it does on the heels of a federal probe into Medicare billing practices at academic hospitals. The Slow Burn Hepatitis C emerging as major health care issue Twenty years ago, it didn't even have a name. Now public health officials across the country are gearing up for a major assault on an insidious yet under-recognized foe: hepatitis C. The good news is that acute cases in Oregon are increasingly rare, and a new therapy offers much better prospects for sufferers. The bad news is that hepatitis C is now the most common chronic bloodborne infection in the United States -- and most carriers have no idea they're infected. Board of Pharmacy takes on national chain The Board has lodged more than 40 violations and 28 disciplinary actions against drugstore behemoth Rite Aid Corp. since it purchased Thrifty/PayLess in December 1996. But Rite Aid insists it's under attack by the Oregon Board of Pharmacy for a rash of complaints brought by disgruntled employees. Sen. Gene Derfler (R-Salem), and Sen. Neil Bryant (R-Bend) will meet with officials from Rite Aid and the Board of Pharmacy in an attempt to resolve the dispute. Regence, Providence experiment with risk Risk adjustment -- paying medical groups more money for higher-cost populations -- is gaining favor in Oregon and appears, on the surface, a more equitable payment system. Otherwise, physicians who end up with too many chronically ill patients may be unwilling to participate in managed care, according to Barney Speight, administrator of the Office of Oregon Health Plan Policy and Research. Now two of Oregon's biggest insurers are heading in that direction. Also in this issue...
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