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 August Hospitals, health plans hammer out provider tax The 2003 legislature has been a roller coaster ride for those charged with providing services for tens of thousands of Oregon Health Plan enrollees. The ups and downs have left many wondering where — and when — the confusion would end. And with the sun about to set on the session, it appeared the hospitals would be left out in the cold. Mired in battles with Medicaid officials and fully capitated health plans, the embattled hospitals looked poised to roll over. Legacy’s woes mediated Petitions had been signed by over 100 physicians and a letter drafted demanding that Legacy Health System’s board of directors end the reign of CEO Bob Pallari. But neither were sent. Instead, following a meeting with Board Chair Jack Winter, a facilitator, Eric Allenbaugh, was hired to resolve the issues. Allenbaugh, who’s been interviewing physician leaders, held a town hall-style meeting on Aug. 11 with doctors from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. He led off the two-hour session talking about how working conditions would improve, given management’s willingness to make changes. However, many physicians didn’t share that sentiment. They insisted Pallari needed to be replaced. “He has to go,” said one physician who was unwilling to share his name. “We want our power back.” Pulmonologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, urologists and emergency room physicians attended the meeting. In the coming weeks, Allenbaugh intends to hold town hall meetings at other Legacy hospitals — Mt. Hood, Meridian Park and Good Samaritan — followed by a retreat on Sept. 19. Learning from the past at Legacy Health System Legacy’s cancer rehabilitation program earned high praises from physicians, patients and their families until 1999 when management took a jack hammer to it. Now, with rumors swirling the same fate may befall the trauma program at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, physicians are hoping history won’t repeat itself. They want to learn a lesson from the past — when storm clouds blew away the cancer rehabilitation program. Four years ago, its director and founder, Sue Frymark, found herself without a job — after guiding the wheel for 24 years. She was asked to re-apply for a newly created position that combined the cancer program she had run with complementary therapy and services for HIV/AIDS patients. But she didn’t get the position. Frymark wasn’t the only person who left. Other staffers, upset over what happened, turned in their resignations. “I was saddened when Bob Pallari ended my job, and the impact it had on others. They were a great team of people,” Frymark said. Legacy’s blood count An internationally recognized program that allows hospital patients to refuse blood transfusions has been severely cut back at Legacy’s downtown hospitals. Each year, up to 4,000 patients utilize the service, primarily members of the Jehovah Witness faith. Other patients have followed their lead after a family member has developed Hepatitis B or C or experienced another bad reaction from a blood transfusion. Until late April, there was a medical director, full-time coordinator and two part-time assistants who made certain physicians knew which patients shouldn’t have transfusions and responded to patient concerns. Basically healthy Yo Adrian, Rocky’s back in the ring. Although this time he’s not fighting, he’s making peace. House Bill 2537 would allow small employers to offer stripped-down health care free of state mandates. Patient advocates pounced on the bill at the outset (see stories in May and June 2003 Oregon Health Forum) saying it jeopardized the quality of care. After three public hearings and four work sessions, however, the bill passed both houses and appeased many of its original opponents. Locating mental health The former Ryles Center isn’t a shoo-in as the site for a sub-acute mental health facility envisioned by Dr. Peter Davidson, Multnomah County’s mental health director. It’s in dire need of repairs with low ceilings and mildew everywhere. “We aren’t locking in that site.” Davidson is still on the look-out for a site east of the Willamette River that can accommodate up to 16 patients. Multnomah County budgeted $7 million for acute care hospitalization this year. Davidson would like to spend at least $4 million treating people at the new facility. Undoing the beer tax The gold statue of a pioneer on top of the Capitol might as well be holding a six-pack of beer instead of an axe. Since 1977, legislators have tried in vain to raise the state’s gilded beer tax. Each time the result has been the same. The tax is out of reach. Only three states have a smaller tax tax than Oregon’s which works out to about a penny-a-pint. The most recent attempt seemed doomed when the House Revenue Committee removed it from a larger bill. Yet with the governor emerging from the shadows, brewers aren’t headed to happy hour quite yet. “Most people in this building understand there will be a beer and wine tax increase this session,” he told the Associated Press. The fearless Knight-Richardson It’s not easy pinning Dr. Norwood Knight-Richardson down for an interview. First he’s not sure when he'll be returning from a health summit in Cairo. Then he doesn’t know when he’ll be asked to hop a plane for Afghanistan or Iraq on a few hours notice. Oregon Health Forum Associate Editor Rory Carroll managed to catch him at home between phone calls with his son in Texas. Easy with a laugh and heartfelt in his concern for the mentally ill everywhere, Oregon Health & Science University’s new senior policy advisor (and President George W. Bush’s college buddy) is bringing Western mental health policy to the Middle East. OHF: Why were you in Egypt? NKR: To make a set of recommendations about rebuilding the public health system in Iraq. Mental health has to be included in that, and we have to make it culturally sensitive because they present their symptoms differently (than Americans). We will miss a huge opportunity if we don’t build this system with mental health on par with physical health. Also in this issue...
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