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 October Deadline passes for Oregon Health Plan waiver approval When the day of reckoning arrived, Medicaid officials found themselves back-pedaling after the feds failed to come up with waiver approval. October 15 had been the deadline for the wheels to start revolving to enable the revised Oregon Health Plan to swing into full motion on New Year’s Day. Now a path of uncertainty awaits. Medicaid Director Lynn Read, who deals with federal officials, couldn’t say with any certainty when waiver approval might come, but intends to pursue it vigorously. Unions threaten Salmon Creek boycott When Legacy Health System broke ground in Clark County on its $220 million Salmon Creek hospital, it may have also severed relationships with workers and their families. Legacy’s top administrators vowed to only hire contractors and subcontractors that provided health benefits and offered area standard wages, but are breaking their word and ignoring criticism from the labor community which intends to boycott the finished facility. Nurses’ attempts to unionize thwarted Legacy’s anti-union reputation doesn’t stop at the bricks and mortar of its hospitals. Inside the walls, Legacy nurses are making a push to unionize. Of all the Portland-area hospitals, only Legacy nurses are without union representation. The only exception is the Legacy Visiting Nurse Association, which provides supportive care for the terminally ill. Some blame Legacy administrators for using anti-union practices. “The administration has a history of resisting unionization,” said Ken Fitzsimon, labor relations administrator for the Oregon Nurses Association. McKesson honored It’s not exactly an Oscar, but at a time of shoestring budgets for health care, it may be more valuable than one. Colorado-based McKesson was recognized by the Disease Management Association of America for the chronic disease program it runs in Washington. McKesson manages a similar program in Oregon, begging the question of whether its Medicaid officials will be writing acceptance speeches soon. The other drug war: Q&A with Maine’s Chellie Pingree If drug company executives wake up in the middle of the night with cold sweats, it might be because they know Chellie Pingree is out there fighting them. And for that reason, seniors fed up with the soaring price of prescription drugs have a new champion. As Maine’s Senate majority leader, Pingree penned the revolutionary Maine Rx law, which seeks to lower prescription costs for more than 325,000 residents by allowing the state to negotiate prices with the big drug companies. OHF: You didn’t really have a blueprint for outlining this legislation. CP: No, our only blueprint was bus trips to Canada and the seniors who went there and asked, ‘Why are my medications a third of the price here?’ That’s the standard discount. We started looking at systems in other countries and said if they can negotiate a price, why can’t we? Rural health proposal Health policy wonks who don’t know how to get to La Grande may want to buy a road map. The city may be the site of a significant influx of public health dollars next year. Dr. Grant Higginson, state health officer, wants to create a rural health center in the northeast city that could open in late 2004. Nurse prescribers strike out Cubs fans can sympathize with Senate Bill 709. It fought valiantly through the legislative session, but ended up one step short of victory. The legislation would have given clinical nurse specialists the right to prescribe medication. After passing effortlessly through the Senate, it appeared ready to make it through the House as well. Then Rep. Betsy Close (R–Albany) filed a minority report in opposition during the closing days. Despite making it out of the House Rules and Public Affairs Committee, the bill never received a floor vote. Purchasing pool hiring With the number of Oregonians looking for work, the state should have no problem finding applicants to administer the state’s new drug purchasing program. Created by Senate Bill 875, it will pool purchasing power among public entities and those over 54 who earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level. As many as 140,000 of the 780,000 Oregonians without prescription coverage will be eligible. Whoever is hired to administer the pool will be responsible for negotiating with drug manufacturers.8 Also in this issue...
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