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 September Oregon Health Plan to lose $15 million The final days of the 2005 legislative session weren’t kind to the Oregon Health Plan. Desperate to get out of the capitol to avoid going down as the longest session in record, passage of House Bill 3108 became the lesser of two evils. It gave the Department of Human Services authority to cut $15 million in funds from the Oregon Health Plan without consent of the legislature. Furthermore, it demanded a waiver be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by Oct. 28 detailing those reductions. Originally, stakeholders thought there was an additional $170 million in cuts that had to be made, of which $132 million would have come from hospital reductions, with the remainder from graduate medical education and non-emergent transportation. But Lynn Read, interim Medicaid director clarified that issue, saying those cuts had already been made because the $170 million had never been included in the final budget for this biennium, even though those dollars appeared in the governor’s recommended budget last December. ODS cashes in The ODS Companies hit the jackpot. The health insurer is “in the process of negotiating a sale” of its high rise office building in downtown Portland, said Jon Jurevic, senior vice president and chief financial officer. Commercial real estate brokers suggest the 400,000 square foot ODS Tower at 601 SW Second Avenue could sell for around $120 million, nearly twice a return on its investment. Because of the confidential nature of the transaction, Jurevic was not “privileged” to discuss who the buyer might be or the price range being discussed. He also declined to say what the company planned to do with the proceeds. Prevention prevented Legislators listen to voters, right? Wrong. It may seem like lawmakers place a high value on public input, but consider the plight of the state’s tobacco prevention and education program. In 1996, 56 percent of voters approved Measure 44, which increased Oregon’s cigarette tax by 1.5 cents per smoke. That measure earmarked the money for tobacco prevention programs. In 2003, however, legislators raided that cache to fund other programs. Instead of the approximately $15 million collected in Measure 44 revenue, the program ended up with a mere $6.9 million. Lawmakers plundered it again this year. On the record with Trish Riley What lessons can Oregon policymakers learn from a radical health reform initiative in Maine? Despite its critics, Dirigo Health is going strong, intent on achieving universal access before the end of the decade. Success can be measured by the political heat it’s raised. Dirigo has become the hottest issue in next year’s gubernatorial race with the Republican Party drumming up support to unseat Governor John Baldacci. Recently Trish Riley, who created Dirigo and is now executive director of the Office of Health Policy, spoke with Oregon Health News Editor Diane Lund-Muzikant. Before coming to Maine, she ran the National Academy for State Health Policy and sat on the review team that gave the go-ahead to start the Oregon Health Plan. OHN: What excites you about Dirigo? TR: We’re the new wave. Each generation has a new type of health reform. We’re taking lessons from a lot of states. The Oregon Health Plan was in the ‘80s. TennCare was in the ‘90s. Instead of just biting off one piece of the apple, we’re taking on the whole system. Emergency alert Bioterrorism hasn’t come to Oregon since followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh dropped salmonella poisoning in 10 restaurant salad bars in the Dalles in 1984. Yet state health officials are throwing another $17 million in federal grants toward emergency preparedness with the hope an incident like that never happens again. Federal emergency managers should have taken a page from Oregon’s playbook in light of Hurricane Katrina. Along with bioterrorism, health workers in the Beaver State will be ready for three relatively likely scenarios: a flu pandemic, an accidental chemical spill and an earthquake. All involve the same alert networks and responses as a biological or chemical terrorist attack. “We picked things we thought had across the board general planning background, things that were practical,” said Dr. Susan Allan, the state’s public health director. She knows terror threats well, having come from Arlington, Virginia where she was public health director during the anthrax attacks. Filling the gap The Oregon Health Plan contractors are up in arms over a decision that could leave a $3.5 million hole in their bank accounts this fiscal year. The problem began after Bryan Johnston, interim director of DHS, signed a temporary rule, which took effect Aug. 15 requiring Medicaid to pay DRG hospitals 100 rather than 80 percent of their cost – to compensate for what the hospitals claimed was under payment from the provider tax. When that tax started, two years ago, hospitals were assured every dollar would be returned – in the aggregate – to their association. “We would have been better informed had we invited the contractors to participate in the temporary rule decision,” Johnston said. “It was my mistake for which I apologize.” Hospitals squabble With its property struggle on shaky ground, the pressure’s mounting on McKenzie Willamette Hospital. Its competitor, PeaceHealth, already owns a 181-acre site in Springfield where it plans to build a nine-story 432-bed hospital. Such competition threatens McKenzie Williamette’s viability. Thus its intent to move to Eugene. That’s where the problems take root. The land eyed by hospital officials, a 22-acre parcel owned by the Eugene Water and Electric Board is unavailable – at least until next spring when PeaceHealth’s bulldozers could be an earshot away. Strike one at Legacy Legacy Emanuel workers represented by SEIU followed through on their word Aug. 31, staging a day-long strike at the northeast Portland hospital. Close to 200 of the 390 workers who pay dues to the labor union spent their day off picketing outside the hospital grounds. Strike activities began at seven in the morning and lasted into the night, said Donna Qualls, a 30-year veteran at Emanuel. Qualls herself cut short a wedding trip in Las Vegas to be part of the event. Social worker waves hello to prison A wave was as good as gold for a clinical social worker convicted in June of bilking Medicaid and Medicare of nearly $170,000. Robert White is serving a 30-month prison sentence after paying full restitution. Before pleading guilty in a Tillamook county court, White’s peers considered him an outstanding citizen. Former Governor John Kitzhaber appointed him to the Governor’s Commission on Senior Services. His four year term ended in October 2004, shortly after prosecutors brought charges and more than a year into the investigation. White also sat on the board for North Coast Senior Services in Clatsop County. A pain in Ted’s neck Chiropractors make a living fixing people’s backs. Recently, they’ve been inflicting pain in Governor Kulongoski’s neck. The governor surprised few people when he vetoed House Bill 2588, which would have authorized $1 million over the next five years from the Workers’ Compensation Benefit Fund to look into transferring certain claims to chiropractors – a practice discontinued during the Mahonia Hall Compromise of 1989. “He managed that Mahonia Hall process and still has a lot of commitment to it,” said Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D–Portland), who met with the governor for 45 minutes the day before he issued his veto intent. Also in this issue...
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