In The Lund Report, Amanda Waldroupe writes:
The bill allowing for the overhaul of the Oregon Health Plan’s delivery system passed the House with an overwhelmingly bipartisan 53-7 vote today, after being stalled for days because it became a part of end-of-session political negotiating and bargaining.
Governor John Kitzhaber is expected to sign Senate Bill 1580 into law within days. The bill allows the Oregon Health Authority to move forward with creating coordinated care organizations (CCOs) throughout the state by July 1.
At the heart of CCOs will be patient teams made up of doctors, nurses, behavioral health providers, community health workers, and other providers who will integrate physical, mental and dental healthcare to the 600,000 patients on the Oregon Health Plan. The hope is that by focusing on preventive care and reducing emergency room utilization, costs can be reduced.
The House’s public galleries were filled with healthcare lobbyists to witness the two-hour debate yesterday. Sen. Alan Bates (D-Medford), one of the three legislators who negotiated the final version of Senate Bill 1580, watched as the votes were cast.
“It’s a big step,” Bates said after the vote. “I am very happy to see this happen.”
Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), who has worked in healthcare his entire professional career, said that Senate Bill 1580’s passage is an important stop in transforming healthcare. He went onto list the major steps the Legislature has taken to reform healthcare, including the creation of the Oregon Health Plan in the 1990s, the work done in 2003 to save it from collapsing, the creation of the Oregon Health Fund Board in 2007 and the creation of the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Health Policy Board in 2009.
“This bill is a very important bill” in that train ride, he said. “The ultimate station for this train is a place where every Oregonian has access to affordable, effective and high quality healthcare.”
For Oregon Health Plan members, CCOs will mean that their healthcare will be delivered in a more organized and integrated manner, Bates said. “We’ll be lucky to see change at the patient level in the next six months,” he continued, adding that it’s more likely those changes will happen within a year.
Read the whole story at The Lund Report.
You can also read about it in The Oregonian:
[fancy_link link=”http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/02/major_health_reform_bill_passe.html” target=”blank”]Major health reform bill passes with bipartisan vote in Oregon House[/fancy_link]
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