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We are moving forward quickly to put together the pieces necessary for communities to form Coordinated Care Organizations. The first steps include gathering public comment on the Request for Application (RFA) that potential CCOs will use and the temporary rules that will implement SB 1580 for the Oregon Health Plan. There is also a parallel process for a proposal to integrate care within the CCOs for the 59,000-some Oregonians who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare.
You can see the draft documents at health.oregon.gov and also see a timeline of the steps to CCO creation. We are taking public comment on the temporary rules and the RFA on the website. Deadline for submission is noon on March 13.
We also have a webinar that goes into more detail. It was presented last Friday afternoon by Medicaid Director Judy Mohr Peterson, with more than 450 people watching it.
Additionally, this week the governor signed the bill to launch Oregon's Health Insurance Exchange, which provides a means for people to shop for affordable health care coverage in an open marketplace by January 2014.
Meanwhile, the Legislature ended the short 2012 session this week and passed a budget bill that addresses the revenue shortfall.
At OHA, we continue to sit in a unique position. On the one hand, Oregon is on track to truly improve the delivery system for health care in our state. And at the same time, the effect of the down economy on state revenues continues at least in the foreseeable future. Ultimately the work we do will help lower the cost of care and help reduce the budget pressures, but for the near term we will have to be smart and strategic in how we manage our resources. Next week I will have more detail on how we will do that within the budget just passed by lawmakers. |
