Health care in the state of Oregon has the potential to be state of the art, affordable, and accessible for all Oregonians. However, there is much work to do to achieve this goal. For example, in recent years the state has worked to improve standard quality measures for care, and to improve transparency by letting patients compare hospital prices and quality online. There are also ongoing collaborations between Oregon and the health care industry to keep rates manageable and to educate employers about their options when purchasing health benefits
Goal: Reduce costs, improve quality and expand access to health care in Oregon
The Health Care initiative was introduced at the December, 2004 Leadership Summit. The Oregon Business Council (OBC) Health Care Task force received input from a variety of key stakeholders, including physicians, hospitals, employers, labor, foundations, policy experts and political leaders. Here are some of the health care accomplishments since 2004:
Electronic Medical Records and Data Exchange. The OBC Health Care Task Force has developed a proposed operational and funding plan to establish a pilot project to enhance the exchange of health information among providers.
Transparency. The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS) and the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research (OHPR) developed websites to provide comparative information on hospital prices and quality. The Oregon Health Policy Commission's Quality and Transparency Work Group, with participation by the OBC Health Care Task Force, providers, insurers and consumers, has overseen this work.
Measuring Quality. The OBC Health Care Task Force has supported the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative to develop and use improved quality measures.
Provider Payment. The Oregon Quality Corporation launched a collaborative effort to develop standardized quality measures for ambulatory care.
Purchasing. The Oregon Business Council and the Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers (OCHCP) joined together to educate employers and encourage them to use more effective purchasing strategies for health benefits, including the use of a common RFI ("eValue8") to gather information on cost, quality, and serve levels from health plans.
Cost Reduction and Industry Collaboration. At the request of the business community, the healthcare industry has commissioned work on 4 key drivers of health care costs with a goal to keep commercial premiums closer to CPI.
Systemic Reform. The 2007 legislature passed the Healthy Oregon Act (SB 329). The goals, principles, and approach were largely consistent with the plan for a comprehensive redesign of the health care system that was presented in the 2007 Oregon Business Plan Health Care Initiative.