Douma steps down from DMAP helm

After only nine months on the job, Dr. Allen Douma has stepped down as administrator of the Division of Medical Assistance Programs, relinquishing the post March 9. Deputy assistant administrator Jim Edge has been named interim administrator in his place.

Douma cited personal reasons, including the strain of a weekly three-and-a-half-hour commute from Ashland.

“It came to the point that in order to do the job I wanted to do I would have had to change where I live and take my wife out of a community where she is heavily involved,” said Douma, who drove to Salem every Tuesday morning, then returned to Ashland on Fridays.

Could 2007 be the year of the mandate?

When Helen and Walker Leiser realized their two-year-old daughter Ashlyn was deaf, they did what any parents with the financial means would do; they stretched their pocketbooks to cover the $14,000 co-pay for a $65,000 cochlear implant. Now Ashlyn can hear through one ear.

But studies show that impaired hearing in even one ear can make children 10 times more likely to be held back a grade. In adulthood, those same children can earn up to $12,000 less in annual wages. So the Leisers went to their insurer, Great-West Healthcare, to request a second implant. It was denied.

“We spent a lot of time fighting the insurance company. Our appeals process has run out. Do we just rack up the credit card bills and risk bankruptcy? These are things that keep us up at night,” Helen told the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services in February.

On the Record with Maribeth Healey

Maribeth Healey moved to Oregon with a mission. Five years ago she was recruited from Florida to head Oregonians for Health Security, one of three Service Employee International Union-financed pilot projects debuting around the country.
But she’s not here for good. Healey said she’ll pack her bags once the Oregon health care crisis is solved. That day might be near. For the first time since Healey first crossed the Snake River, the issue has taken center stage in the capitol. Oregon Health News acting editor-in-chief Tim Stumm recently caught up with the Salem regular to see if she’s started dusting off her resume yet.

OHN: In your five years here, have you ever seen health care take on such a prominent role in the capitol?

MH: No. It’s really exciting. I think I start every legislative session saying this is the year. This is the year for health care. At the start of the 2007 legislative session I was sitting around getting kind of anxious. Then I was like, wait a minute. I don’t really have to call on the legislature to do something about the high cost of health care this year because there are seven health care committees. I would imagine that there is going to be some good work done around health care costs and access.

School association bill passes out of House

The debate over a mandatory statewide health insurance pool for nearly all school district employees is over. The food fight lasted more than three legislative sessions.

Senate Bill 426 passed the Senate along a party line vote on March 8. Less than a week later, and hours before press time, it passed the House without a public hearing, 36 to 20. Several Republicans crossed over.

The issue appeared to have as much to do with overall education policies as with health care. It decimates more than half ($2.4 million) of the Oregon School Boards Association’s annual $4.4 million operating budget, which it gains from administering its own health insurance pool as it has for the past 40 years. That pool has more than 90,000 members.

“There is concern that there is more politics involved,” said Ron Wilson, OSBA’s associate executive director.

Coming together in central Oregon

Pioneer Memorial Hospital and Cascade Healthcare Community are exploring a possible business arrangement that would more closely align central Oregon’s three largest hospitals. Cascade is the parent company of St. Charles — Bend and St. Charles —Redmond Medical Centers. Pioneer Memorial is located in Prineville.

Currently, Cascade shares a management relationship with Pioneer and hires its administrator and central financial officer. Under the new agreement, which could take three to six months to finalize, Pioneer would lease its land, buildings and equipment to Cascade for a monthly fee. Cascade would also oversee Pioneer’s hospital operations, receiving payment for those services from patients.

“From the board’s perspective, it’s the next step,” said Don Wee, Pioneer’s CEO.

Also in this issue...

• CMS proposal could threaten state services
  
• HPV vaccine mandate proposal hits Oregon
  
• Ex-Senate president pushing insurance bill
  
• RNs and PAs shake hands
  

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