Making health care work for everyone, since 1994
CareOregon Annual Report 2019
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Then and now...
1994
1 Line of business
10 Board of Directors seats
7 Employees
10 thousand Members
10% of 3 million Oregonians uninsured
2019
7 Lines of business
15 Board of Directors seats
827 Employees
375 thousand Members
6% of 4.2 million Oregonians uninsured
1994
2019
1 Line of business
7 Line of businesses
10 Board of Directors seats
15 Board of Directors seats
7 Employees
827 Employees
10 thousand Members
375 thousand Members
10% of 3 million Oregonians uninsured
6% of 4.2 million Oregonians uninsured
The CareOregon Effect
CareOregon’s mission is to build individual
well-being and community health through
partnerships, shared learning and innovation.
Or … you could say that our mission is simply
who we are, and why we exist, and the way
we act each day.
We feel our mission every minute as it infuses our caring and respect for members. Our mission lives in how we value our providers, looking for practical ways to support both their capacity for quality care and the sustainability of their practices.
Our mission flourishes as we create opportunities to learn from each other, encourage innovative ideas from our staff, and lead responsible health reform for our state.
When we join hands with fellow nonprofits who share our vision of healthy communities for all individuals, regardless of income or social factors, we feel at one with our purpose.
As we strive to make health care work for each of us — from before birth to end of life, and all the milestones in between — we know we are making stronger communities for all of us.
And that’s the beauty and power
of the CareOregon Effect.
Table of contents
- The CareOregon Effect
- CareOregon family tree
- Welcome letter from the Board Chair
- Timeline: 1994-2019: A quarter century of CareOregon
- Celebrating our 25th anniversary: Employee appreciation event
- Celebrating our 25th anniversary: CareOregon founders and leaders: Past, present and future
- CareOregon family of companies unified by a 25-year mission
- CareOregon Metro: Built on relationships and purpose
- Columbia Pacific CCO
- Jackson Care Connect
- CareOregon Advantage
- Tribal Care Coordination
- Housecall Providers
- Financial summary 2019
- Community investment 2019
- Closing letter from the Chief Executive
- Board of Directors
Use your mouse to scroll through the Annual Report or use the dots on the right-hand side to navigate to specific pages.
Click here to download a copy of the 2019 Annual Report
Scroll through the Annual Report or use the menu in the top-right corner to navigate to specific pages.
Click here to download a copy of the 2019 Annual Report
CareOregon family tree
As Oregon’s health care needs have evolved, CareOregon has branched out, offering new services across the state. This is the CareOregon family, united by our common DNA and current mission. Every day, we strengthen communities by making health care work for everyone.
Columbia Pacific CCO
Nonprofit CCO providing physical, dental and mental health services in Columbia, Clatsop and Tillamook counties. In 2019, it served 25,711 members with physical health care, 26,161 with dental care and 26,187 with mental health care.
CareOregon Advantage
Managed Medicare Special Needs Plan (HMO- POS SNP) that combines Medicare, Medicaid (the Oregon Health Plan), prescription drug and additional benefits. In 2019, it served 11,532 members in the Portland tri-county area.
Tribal Care Coordination
In 2019, the program served 18,929 American Indian and Alaska Natives who had acute or chronic health care needs and were on fee- for-service (Open card) Oregon Health Plan.
Jackson Care Connect
Nonprofit CCO providing physical, dental and mental health services in Jackson County. In 2019, it served 32,562 members with physical health care, and 32,956 with dental and/or mental health care.
Health Share of Oregon
Nonprofit CCO in the Portland area. CareOregon is a risk-accepting health plan within Health Share. In 2019, CareOregon served 204,031 members with physical, dental and mental health care, and an additional 75,860 with dental care alone.
Housecall Providers
Nonprofit organization that offers home- centered care integrating primary, palliative and hospice services for those who are homebound or have serious, complex medical situations. In 2019, they served 2,466 patients.
Nonprofit community benefit company based in Portland, founded in 1994 and operating in seven counties across western Oregon. We manage health care and provide other services to more than 450,000 Oregonians through three coordinated care organizations, a Medicare Advantage plan, a Tribal Care Coordination program and a dental care organization. Beyond health care, we support programs and community partners that offer housing, food, education and other supports.
ABOUT COORDINATED CARE ORGANIZATIONS: CCOs are companies that, through contracts with the Oregon Health Authority, manage OHP benefits for their members. Since Oregon introduced CCOs in 2012, they’ve worked with physical, dental, mental health and substance use treatment providers, and community partners. The goal is to prevent disease and improve the health of Oregonians, while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
WELCOME LETTER FROM THE BOARD CHAIR
Person-centered care that benefits entire communities
CareOregon’s 2019 Annual Report is special for a number of reasons: In 2019, we celebrated 25 years of service to our members, expanded our engagement with the community, and deepened commitment to innovative solutions that make health care work for everyone.
I believe that this report is special because it showcases how CareOregon has evolved to meet members’ needs for a quarter century, not just the past calendar year. As the organization works diligently to meet each day’s challenges, it is also good to remember our seminal role in the state’s efforts to build stable, quality publicly funded health care. I’ve been honored to serve as Chair of the CareOregon Board of Directors since 2016. I was a member of the original team that created CareOregon in 1994 and was drawn to rejoin the Board in 2013 because I was so proud of CareOregon’s demonstrated commitment to developing person-centered care that also benefits the entire community. Last year, CareOregon saw the imperative to keep moving forward with integrating behavioral, oral and physical health; we did this while building on the success of a payment initiative that rewards our provider network for high-quality, cost-effective care.
As a family medicine physician and native Oregonian, I am deeply pleased to see this progress toward treating the whole person, and with thoughtful stewardship of resources. The board was humbled and proud in 2019 when the state affirmed our efforts by awarding Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect and Health Share of Oregon five-year contracts to continue our work. This annual report describes how CareOregon used 25 years of experience to help chart the next steps for our CCO’s, and highlights the positive impact that our approach has on our members and communities. As I write this, we are dealing with a global pandemic, the fallout from multiple devastating wildfires, and the ongoing social unrest that accompanies centuries of systemic racism.
Glenn Rodriguez, MD, has chaired the CareOregon Board since 2016, but his history with us goes back to 1994. He was part of the team that founded CareOregon.
CareOregon’s resiliency and commitment to support the broad community are more important now than ever. As this annual report makes clear, this work is not new for us. And over the years, acting upon our genuine belief in making health care work for everyone, we’ve been grateful to see the healthier individuals and stronger communities that result.
Glenn Rodriguez, MD
Chair of the Board of Directors, CareOregon
TIMELINE: 1994 – 2019
A quarter century of CareOregon
In 1993, two Portland health care leaders sat down for a candid discussion. As the Oregon Health Plan took shape, Billi Odegaard, director of the Multnomah County Health Department, and Dr. Peter Kohler, president of the then-Oregon Health Sciences University, saw another need: a health plan wholly dedicated to serving Medicaid recipients under OHP’s pioneering approach. Their instincts were spot on. And their strong vision turned into CareOregon.
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In 1993, two Portland health care leaders sat down for a candid discussion. As the Oregon Health Plan took shape, Billi Odegaard, director of the Multnomah County Health Department, and Dr. Peter Kohler, president of the then-Oregon Health Sciences University, saw another need: a health plan wholly dedicated to serving Medicaid recipients under OHP’s pioneering approach. Their instincts were spot on. And their strong vision turned into CareOregon.
- Click each year to view events
- 1994
- Feb. 1: Oregon Health Plan launches
- Feb. 1: CareOregon launches, part of Multnomah County Health Department
- 1997
- April 1: CareOregon gains 501(c) (3) nonprofit status
- 2000
- Under our umbrella, stakeholders including Multnomah County and Oregon Primary Care Association win federal CAP grant to improve administrative systems and centralize data. Result is Oregon Community Health Information Network (OCHIN), which we administer for two years.
- 2003
- CareOregon confronts severe financial crisis
- 2004
- With 12% of members consuming 60% of our budget, we start CareSupport — multidisciplinary care management that integrates social services and focuses on members with multiple complex conditions
- New CEO Dave Ford, new COO/ CFO Fritz Rankin and the board of directors lead major internal and external changes to create dramatic savings, improve care and secure CareOregon’s future
- 2005
- CareSupport evolves into CareSupport Innovation (CSSI) program. We work with 48 network providers to develop a payment model based on quality measures better suited to Medicaid providers than standard payfor- performance; fund $16M in quality-improvement projects. CSSI leads to Primary Care Renewal
- September: CareOregon buys the 315 SW Fifth Ave building from ODS
- CareOregon starts now-cherished tradition of celebrating Halloween with costumes, parties and inter-floor competitions
- 2006
- Leaders travel to Anchorage to observe a progressive model of primary care at the Southcentral Foundation’s Native Primary Care Center.
- CareOregon Advantage Plus launches as Medicare Special Needs Plan (SNP) for members dually eligible for OHP and Medicare.
- At five primary care clinics, CareOregon pilots Primary Care Renewal project, a team-based approach that’s a forerunner to patient-centered medical homes.
- Dec. 12: CareOregon board convenes its 100th board meeting.
- 2009
- Responding to a need for additional primary care services in East County, CareOregon buys Rockwood Building, partnering with Multnomah County to site a clinic there.
- 2010
- CareOregon establishes consumer advisory groups, an idea proposed by community health engagement advocates.
- 2010-2012: CareOregon invests $11 million in community health clinics, helping create five new clinics to expand members’ access to primary care services. We transfer clinic ownership to new nonprofit, Neighborhood Health Center, enabling those clinics to apply for designation as a Federally Qualified Health Center.
- 2012
- Oregon establishes 16 coordinated care organizations (CCOs) to transform Medicaid program. CCOs tasked with providing comprehensive care while being accountable for access, quality and cost.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides first installment of $1.9B over five years for health care transformation in exchange for Oregon “bending the cost curve.”
- CareOregon helps establish six CCOs: Health Share of Oregon, Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect, Primary Health of Southern Oregon, Yamhill Community Care Organization and Primary Health of Josephine County; supports start of Oregon’s Health CO-OP, private nonprofit health insurer.
- Multnomah County transfers its dental care organization to CareOregon.
- 2014
- Primary Health of Josephine County and Oregon’s Health CO-OP become fully independent
- CareOregon celebrates 20 years of creating community well-being, with float in Rose Festival Starlight Parade, featuring Pharrell Williams’s “Happy,” our staff and members. Idea proposed by Community Health Engagement Advocates, the CareOregon consumer advisory group established in 2010. Clap along at: youtube.com watch?v=ujkrPeAGHcE
- 2015
- Pharmacy team launches MEDS Ed, an ongoing education series featuring internal and external medical experts exploring topics relevant to clinicians caring for patients at community clinics. View topics and videos of past sessions: careoregon.org/providers/ pharmacy-resources/MEDS-ed
- 2016
- First year we’re named in Oregon Top Workplaces and 100 Best Nonprofits.
- 2017
- CareOregon integrates behavioral health benefit for Jackson Care Connect.
- In May, CareOregon acquires Housecall Providers, which provides at-home medical and hospice care for complex patients. (see Housecall Providers story)
- We collaborate with Oregon’s nine Federally Recognized Tribes, Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA) and Oregon Health Authority to form Tribal Care Coordination to provide culturally appropriate services statewide for American Indian/Alaska Native members in OHP’s fee-for-service program. Care coordination is hands-on member engagement to help OHP members with chronic or acute illnesses navigate health care options. (see Tribal Care Coordination story
- 2018
- CareOregon onboards nearly 80,000 Family Care members — a 40% enrollment jump in six weeks — after Portland metro area’s other coordinated care organization closes its doors, sending its 103,000 members to Health Share of Oregon.
- 2019
- We transition the behavioral health benefit in-house for CareOregon/Health Share and Columbia Pacific CCO.
- We receive award notices for five- year contracts with the Oregon Health Authority for Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect and Portland tri-county area’s umbrella CCO, Health Share of Oregon.
- CareOregon begins work on bringing non-emergent medical transportation administration in-house in 2020.
- Feb. 1: Oregon Health Plan launches
- Feb. 1: CareOregon launches, part of Multnomah County Health Department
- April 1: CareOregon gains 501(c) (3) nonprofit status
- Under our umbrella, stakeholders including Multnomah County and Oregon Primary Care Association win federal CAP grant to improve administrative systems and centralize data. Result is Oregon Community Health Information Network (OCHIN), which we administer for two years.
- CareOregon confronts severe financial crisis
- With 12% of members consuming 60% of our budget, we start CareSupport — multidisciplinary care management that integrates social services and focuses on members with multiple complex conditions
- New CEO Dave Ford, new COO/ CFO Fritz Rankin and the board of directors lead major internal and external changes to create dramatic savings, improve care and secure CareOregon’s future
- CareSupport evolves into CareSupport Innovation (CSSI) program. We work with 48 network providers to develop a payment model based on quality measures better suited to Medicaid providers than standard payfor- performance; fund $16M in quality-improvement projects. CSSI leads to Primary Care Renewal
- September: CareOregon buys the 315 SW Fifth Ave building from ODS
- CareOregon starts now-cherished tradition of celebrating Halloween with costumes, parties and inter-floor competitions
- Leaders travel to Anchorage to observe a progressive model of primary care at the Southcentral Foundation’s Native Primary Care Center.
- CareOregon Advantage Plus launches as Medicare Special Needs Plan (SNP) for members dually eligible for OHP and Medicare.
- At five primary care clinics, CareOregon pilots Primary Care Renewal project, a team-based approach that’s a forerunner to patient-centered medical homes.
- Dec. 12: CareOregon board convenes its 100th board meeting.
- Responding to a need for additional primary care services in East County, CareOregon buys Rockwood Building, partnering with Multnomah County to site a clinic there.
- CareOregon establishes consumer advisory groups, an idea proposed by community health engagement advocates.
- 2010-2012: CareOregon invests $11 million in community health clinics, helping create five new clinics to expand members’ access to primary care services. We transfer clinic ownership to new nonprofit, Neighborhood Health Center, enabling those clinics to apply for designation as a Federally Qualified Health Center.
- Primary Health of Josephine County and Oregon’s Health CO-OP become fully independent
- CareOregon celebrates 20 years of creating community well-being, with float in Rose Festival Starlight Parade, featuring Pharrell Williams’s “Happy,” our staff and members. Idea proposed by Community Health Engagement Advocates, the CareOregon consumer advisory group established in 2010. Clap along here.
- Pharmacy team launches MEDS Ed, an ongoing education series featuring internal and external medical experts exploring topics relevant to clinicians caring for patients at community clinics. View topics and videos of past sessions here.
- First year we’re named in Oregon Top Workplaces and 100 Best Nonprofits.
- CareOregon integrates behavioral health benefit for Jackson Care Connect.
- In May, CareOregon acquires Housecall Providers, which provides at-home medical and hospice care for complex patients. (see Housecall Providers story)
- We collaborate with Oregon’s nine Federally Recognized Tribes, Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA) and Oregon Health Authority to form Tribal Care Coordination to provide culturally appropriate services statewide for American Indian/Alaska Native members in OHP’s fee-for-service program. Care coordination is hands-on member engagement to help OHP members with chronic or acute illnesses navigate health care options. (see Tribal Care Coordination story)
- CareOregon onboards nearly 80,000 Family Care members — a 40% enrollment jump in six weeks — after Portland metro area’s other coordinated care organization closes its doors, sending its 103,000 members to Health Share of Oregon.
- We transition the behavioral health benefit in-house for CareOregon/Health Share and Columbia Pacific CCO.
- We receive award notices for five- year contracts with the Oregon Health Authority for Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect and Portland tri-county area’s umbrella CCO, Health Share of Oregon.
- CareOregon begins work on bringing non-emergent medical transportation administration in-house in 2020.
CELEBRATING OUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Employee appreciation event
CareOregon’s 25th anniversary was a chance to celebrate a quarter century of innovation and holding members at the center of our work. None of this would have been possible without our phenomenal employees.
A SPIRITED subcommittee planned a balloon- festooned summertime celebration at an indoor-outdoor event space near downtown Portland. The hundreds who attended included those who have been with us from the start as well as new staff. Games involving company trivia and our brand values — Caring, Genuine, Thoughtful, Brave, Steadfast and Optimistic — encouraged mingling. Food, dancing, slides from our archives, a dress-up photo booth, friendly cornhole competitions, a Velcro climbing wall and prize drawings added up to an energizing break that gave us time to laugh, enjoy each other and appreciate the special calling of our company.
CareOregon President and CEO Eric C. Hunter expressed his pride and appreciation to all, and gave extra thanks to the planning committee: Amy Dowd, Heidi Hallberg Zeimentz, Bree LoRusso, Chantay Reid, Alexa Jett, Marla Clary and Laura Steiger. They got party-day help from Josue Aguirre, Ian Youngstrom, Melissa Brewster, Cathy Merge- Martin, Crystal Roberts and Denise Johnson. Jackson Care Connect celebrated the 25th anniversary in October at an outdoor venue in Jacksonville (left, far left). The Staff Appreciation Event included lunch, door prizes, and badminton, cornhole and other lawn games. President & CEO Eric C. Hunter stopped by for some mingling time. Big thanks to the JCC planning committee: Debbie Backstrom, Emily Gracey, Tracey Howard, Lupe Murillo, Drew Nelson, Riki Rosenthal and Heather Schaffer.
CELEBRATING OUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY
CareOregon founders and leaders: Past, present and future
It’s important to remember where you came from. Our 25th anniversary was the perfect time to celebrate how CareOregon came to be in the early days of the Oregon Health Plan — and our continued evolution. In August, CareOregon President and CEO Eric C. Hunter brought together our founders, current and former executives, board members and community advisory board members for a special evening.
The room at a downtown hotel was filled with those who had invested time, talent and heart into developing CareOregon into who we are today. Rather than a corporate meeting, it felt like a family reunion: individuals bonded by the common purpose of bringing health and health care to as many people as possible. We shared images and stories from our past and present, summarized current initiatives, and presented awards to attendees who especially exemplified CareOregon’s SPIRITED values of Service, Passion, Initiative, Results, Innovation, Teamwork, Equity and Diversity. We’re forever grateful to the commitment of these founders and leaders, to our provider network, to our community partners, and — most of all — to our members, who are the reason we’ve worked tirelessly through the years.
Front: Mary Lou Hennrich, Founding CEO, 1994-2002 Back, from left: David Ford, CEO 2002-2012; Patrick Curran, CEO, 2012- 2015; Eric C. Hunter, CEO, 2016-present; Scott Clement, Interim CEO, 2016
Front: Teresa Learn, CFO Back, from left: Fritz Rankin, former CFO; Meredith Brooks, former Controller
Front, from left: Mindy Stadtlander, Erin Fair Taylor, Julia Pirani. Back, from left: Jennifer Lind, Rebecca Ramsay, Teresa Learn, Mary Kjemperud, Mimi Haley, Alyssa Franzen, Beatrice Yanazzo, Amy Dowd, Jill Archer
CareOregon leaders present SPIRITED awards. Service — Ed Blackburn, former CEO of Central City Concern with Mindy Stadtlander, Senior Vice President, Medicaid and Network Services;
Passion — Mary Lou Hennrich, Founding CEO with Amy Dowd, COO;
Innovation — David Ford, former CEO with Teresa Learn, CFO;
Results & Initiative — former Gov. John Kitzhaber (not pictured); Teamwork — Vickie Gates, former Board Chair with Erin Fair Taylor, Chief Strategy Officer
Our founders’ foresight was affirmed five years later when multiple commercial insurers pulled out of OHP. In 1999-2000, CareOregon served as the safety net for OHP itself. We alone remained — at our own significant financial peril — out of our unwavering commitment to provide health care to Oregonians who need it. “I believe to this day that the Oregon Health Plan would not have survived if CareOregon hadn’t been born,” Multnomah County’s Billi Odegaard said at the time of our 20th anniversary.
Outside-the-box solutions
Innovation, collaboration and courage have continued to power our mission. We are oriented to helping set the path of effective health reform, not to simply be ahead of the curve. Keeping an eye on future stability for ourselves and our partners, we take calculated risks if they enable us to better meet our mission. We look at our own challenges and ask partners about theirs — and how we can help. In 2000, that approach led to CareOregon standing up Oregon Community Health Information Network to provide health IT support and services to six community health centers. OCHIN now serves 500 organizations across the U.S.
In 2005, when partner Central City Concern was struggling with delivering primary care at its Old Town Clinic, we paid for a consulting physician to evaluate the situation and make recommendations. The clinic ultimately won honors from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2009, when East Multnomah County lacked a county clinic to serve our members — and no site was available to lease — we forged an agreement. We’d buy a building for a clinic, and Multnomah County would staff it. Rockwood Community Health Center opened the following year, in space the county continues to rent from us. In 2011-2012, after the Oregon Legislature and Affordable Care Act transformed the Medicaid program with CCOs and expanded Medicaid eligibility, we helped establish five of the state’s 16 CCOs: Health Share of Oregon, Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect, Primary Health of Josephine County and Yamhill Community Care Organization. Across the CareOregon family, our founders’ mission and values are at the heart of what we do. We are eager to see where they lead us in the next quarter century.
The CareOregon Board of Directors
- Kerry Barnett
- President and Chief Executive Officer, SAIF Appointed May 2020
- Woody English, MD, MMM
- Providence Health and Services, retired
- Joanne Fuller, MSW
- Multnomah County Health Department, retired
- Tec Han
- Chief Investment Officer, Vibrato Capital
- Damien R. Hall
- Associate, Ball Janik LLP
- Susan Hennessy
- Kaiser Permanente NW, retired
- Eric C. Hunter
- President & Chief Executive Officer, CareOregon
- Brenda Johnson
- Chief Executive Officer, La Clinica
- Nathalie Johnson, MD
- Legacy Health, Legacy Cancer Institute
- Kathy Jones
- Healthcare Administration, San Diego County, retired
- Gina Nikkel, PhD
- Executive Director, Association of Oregon Counties
- Suk Rhee
- Director, Office of Community & Civic Life at the City of Portland
- Glenn Rodriguez, MD
- Board Chair, CareOregon
Providence Milwaukie, Family Medicine Residency Program, retired - Bob Stewart
- Superintendent, Gladstone School District
Marquam Hill was CareOregon’s first home. We opened our doors the same day the Oregon Health Plan launched.
CareOregon/Health Share: a bold approach to revolutionizing Medicaid
From as near as California and Washington, as far as New York and Florida, and a dozen states between, Erin Fair Taylor fielded calls. Day after day in 2012 and 2013, the phone on Fair Taylor’s desk rang with callers asking the same question: “How did you do this?”
“This” was Health Share of Oregon, a coordinated care organization that was revolutionary in the health care world. Competing Portland-area hospitals and health plans, and all three counties, had joined hands in a single enterprise, formed solely to serve Medicaid recipients. Fair Taylor — today CareOregon’s Chief Strategy Officer — was CareOregon’s new Director of CCOs, deployed to Health Share’s initial offices on the third floor of the CareOregon building.
Health Share, she told the callers, was the embodiment of the vision of CCOs putting their energy into cooperation, not competition. With some pain, each partner gave up a measure of autonomy for this first-of-its-kind health care collaborative. “We could never get competitors in our community to do that,” the callers marveled.
A critical CMMI grant
It wasn’t an easy birth. The umbrella organization arose from months of challenging conversations where the partners learned about one another’s priorities and concerns for Medicaid, required a full commitment to the joint CCO, and hammered out a structure of shared responsibility for Oregon Health Plan clients in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.
The effort was stoked by a mixture of idealism, the hard realities of a recession that was hammering the state budget for OHP, two Oregon governors’ intense interest in health care transformation, expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and, very importantly, a $17.3 million CMMI grant that the Health Share founding members won from the CMS Innovation Center, the Health Commons Grant. The grant application laid out “a collaboration across systems, building something bigger than any one of us could be by ourselves,” remembers Fair Taylor, who labored over the proposal during the winter 2011 holidays with then-Medical Director David Labby, MD, PhD, Rebecca Ramsay, MPH, BSN, then-Senior Manager of Care Support and Clinical Programs, and dozens of others from Health Share’s founding member organizations. At the time, CareOregon was a nationally recognized trailblazer in innovative approaches to Medicaid. Why join an effort to form the CCO that became Health Share? “We realized we’d reached the limits of what we could do on our own,” Fair Taylor says. Even though innovation is in our DNA, as a solo insurer for only physical health services at that time, CareOregon’s ability to develop an integrated system of care to better meet the needs of the region was limited. As part of a tri-county CCO, we saw greater potential for a health system that combined physical, dental and mental health for whole- person care. Even so, she says, “The decision to join Health Share was not made lightly.”
Readying for 2020
The Oregon Health Authority issued a broad invitation in 2018 for input into CCO 2.0, the next iteration of five-year contracts governing coordinated care organizations. We weighed in with our expertise and field experience, and encouraged community partners to do the same.
We really start with what is the right thing to do, thinking about stewardship, community focus, and what is the problem we’re trying to solve. And we figure out the dollar and cents second.
— Erin Fair Taylor, Chief Strategy Officer
The four priority areas that Gov. Kate Brown announced in 2019 for CCO 2.0 mirrored areas we were already building — and had advocated for including: Improve the behavioral health system, increase value and pay for performance, focus on social determinants of health and health equity, and maintain sustainable cost growth. “The state used us as the model and testbed,” says Fair- Taylor. “We’ve always been half a step ahead of where the conversation is.” In 2019, we focused greatly on preparing for a major expansion of our scope. After seven years as a Health Share partner, we had earned the trust of the counties and fellow Health Share health plans to administer the overall dental, mental health, and nonemergent medical transportation benefits (see “Non-emergent medical transportation,” on this page). CareOregon continues to administer physical health benefits for nearly two-thirds of Health Share members. With this unified responsibility, CareOregon/ Health Share reached the holistic approach to Medicaid that Oregon aspired to in 2012 when it launched CCOs.
Always an innovator
Along with collaborating within Health Share, we’ve continued our own tradition of innovation.
We embed staff in clinics to provide social work services and review records, looking for care gaps. Our payment incentives support primary care providers in integrating oral and behavioral health with physical health (see “Behavioral Health goes inhouse,” page 15), and for reaching the state’s metrics. We are helping dental and primary care clinics blend their services (see “CareOregon Dental,” page 19) and better communicate and coordinate care across the continuum. Our Community Advisory Boards meet regularly and weigh in on member-facing initiatives. Community Benefit funds prioritize social determinants of health and health disparities. The Pharmacy team strives to control drug costs. And our supportive services — language access and NEMT — help fill the practicality gap between access to care and actually receiving and understanding that care. “Practically speaking, this integration was not possible at the launch of CCOs,” says Fair Taylor, noting that the state passed the CCO legislation in late March 2012. CCOs started serving members September 1 of the same year and had to use the current systems.
“Changing a tire while going 70 miles per hour takes careful planning and coordinated work,” says Fair Taylor. CareOregon is at this point, she notes, after years of reimagining and thoughtfully re-engineering the system, and building relationships with provider networks, member advisory councils, CCO boards and community partners.
Beyond 2019
CareOregon/Health Share remains committed to a broad network, knowing that members appreciate choices. We tend the bonds with the safety-net clinics that are our roots, and the partners who helped us get where we are. We recognize that members and providers have their own distinct connection, and we are focused on supporting and enhancing that. More than ever, we are mindful of relationships. “Our thinking 25 years later is that focusing on the clinical network is necessary but not sufficient,” says Fair Taylor. “Investing in providers, members, community- based partners and ourselves, internally, is all critical to a stable health plan.” Tumultuous 2020 sharpened our commitment in the areas the pandemic heightened, including mental health and substance use services, and addressing health inequities that communities of color face. We hear and support the impassioned calls for racial justice, and recognize the role we can play in helping dismantle barriers that stand in the way of health, happiness, fairness and economic opportunity.
We stood by members and staff affected by the devastating September fires and smoke when we coordinated transportation, temporary housing, and connections to services for those affected. And we know we are strong enough to be a bedrock in whatever other times of distress the future may bring. As 2020 closes, we gratefully recognize that CareOregon’s mission gives us the opportunity to support our communities in ways that most health plans do not.
CareOregon is more than a safety net plan, because we do the work to make sure the safety net truly aligns with the framework established by public policy. Over time, we try to influence and shape the public policy that is produced, but regardless of the policy framework, we will always prioritize the specific needs of our members.
— Jeremiah Rigsby, Chief of Staff
This work, a shared product of local public health, hospitals, the CCO and others, identified eight strategic priorities focused on social determinants of health and access to services (see graphic). These priorities were also adopted by county leaders and health departments across our region, allowing for collective impact to improve community health. Another priority area for the CCO has been in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work to ensure that members’ diverse needs are understood across all areas of the CCO. Koreishi says, “We’re developing strategies by centering those who have been at the margins, as opposed to developing strategies first and then trying to fit in the people on the margins.” Columbia Pacific took a proactive stance, rallying around the issue of language access as a starting point toward cultural responsiveness. The first steps included enhancing existing interpretation assistance for members and working with the clinical advisory panel on a language access plan. As part of this work, Koreishi suggested that the Columbia Pacific Board of Directors engage in equity and inclusion training. She and Executive Director Mimi Haley knew that if their EDI efforts were going to have a permanent, positive effect, they needed to involve the highest levels of leadership.
The culture of openness and focus on equity has allowed for broader conversations about racial justice and health inequities, both internally and with the CCO’s four Community Advisory Councils. “We had one and a half feet in before, and now we’re all in,” says Koreishi. As Columbia Pacific’s service to Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties continues, the CCO — which was formed to transform health — continues to move beyond health care. We know issues like food and housing have a dramatic impact on health, and are both humbled and invigorated by the work we have ahead in the face of a public health emergency and an economic downturn. There is always more work to be done. The greatest opportunities — focusing on members, equity and justice — remain ahead.
There are two things that make us succeed. The first is that we have an incredible team. I really believe we’re the best little CCO in the state because of them. And second, we have local leadership on our board, in our clinical advisory groups and with our community councils — they are the heart and soul of our CCO.
— Mimi Haley, Executive Director Columbia Pacific CCO
Jackson Care Connect
As the first speaker at Jackson Care Connect’s 2019 spring conference, Curtis Ziegler quickly commanded the room. His deeply personal story set the day’s tone for the 200 health care, social service and community leaders in attendance.
Just four years prior, Ziegler had been homeless. He suffered from addiction and several other untreated health conditions. He recalled, “I was so wrapped up in my disease that I just stopped caring for myself.” A chance encounter with an Oregon Health Plan assister from La Clinica set Ziegler on a path of hope and recovery. As he told his story, Ziegler called out several organizations that helped him heal, including physical, mental and oral health providers, the Rogue Valley YMCA and the non-emergent transportation vendor Translink. He said, “There have been so many resources that have helped to solidify the very foundation I stand on today, and Jackson Care Connect has been there since ground zero.” Ziegler’s experience illustrates the strength that comes from Jackson Care Connect’s deep roots in the tightly knit Jackson County community.
While CareOregon had a long history of serving Medicaid members in Jackson County, the establishment of coordinated care organizations (CCOs) in 2012 created a new opportunity. CareOregon’s Chief Strategy Officer Erin Fair Taylor recalls the creation of Jackson Care Connect resulted from dozens of conversations with local providers and community leaders who asked CareOregon to enter the local CCO landscape. Fair Taylor says our success in Jackson County is a result of that support. When Jackson Care Connect’s Executive Director Jennifer Lind, who was the organization’s first employee, walked into her first board meeting in 2012, she found a powerhouse of local leaders already at the table. That group included leaders from hospitals, clinic systems and public health who had a depth of knowledge of health care in Jackson County. Their vision was essential to shaping the direction and culture for the organization.
Jackson Care Connect member Curtis Ziegler shares his story of recovery.
Being part of the CareOregon family allows Jackson Care Connect to flex the strength of our statewide administrative and health care expertise. Lind recalls, “We saw CareOregon turn itself completely inside out from a place that served members and held contracts with the Oregon Health Authority, to this parent company serving the CCOs.” Lind points to key moments in our evolution as evidence of the CCO’s innovative nature. Not long after the first board formed, Jackson Care Connect member George Adams became its first member representative, a practice that wasn’t common at the time. Carving out a permanent position on the board for the member voice has helped the organization be responsive to member needs. That culture of innovation, along with our deep community ties, also allows Jackson Care Connect to be nimble in responding to members’ needs.
Improving access to behavioral health has always been a priority, and in 2017, we were one of the first CCOs to integrate the behavioral health benefit. As a result of the broader focus on mental health, utilization of the behavioral health benefit has steadily increased. In 2019 the community came together to create the community health improvement plan All In For Health. Informed by a recent community health assessment, All In For Health affirmed three priorities: behavioral health, housing and parenting support. These priorities validated the work the CCO was already focused on. They also aligned with the priorities the Oregon Health Authority established for CCOs in the 2020-2024 contracting process. Jackson Care Connect was one of two CCOs awarded a five-year contract in the county, and the only one awarded a contract without stipulations. These health priorities are best addressed by collaboration with community partners like Rogue Retreat, which helps people who are homeless with supportive housing and case management. In 2019, Rogue Retreat completed the second phase of Hope Village, a tiny house development Jackson Care Connect supported financially. Hope Village provides people with an important first step on the pathway to secure housing.
Keynote speaker Dr. Alicia Moreland Capuia (right) shares insights in a small-group discussion.
This year, 195 Jackson Care Connect members were served by Rogue Retreat’s services. Jackson Care Connect made progress on another complex community health issue in 2019: medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. Our staff convened a new learning collaborative, which provided a forum for shared learning and training on best practices. The collaborative is a monthly series with representatives from community justice, health providers, hospital staff, Veterans Administration and community organizations. The conference that Curtis Ziegler kicked off took on housing, MAT and more, with a focus on health equity throughout. Diana Alfaro Soto, a member of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), addressed the conference in Spanish, her first language. Speaking through an interpreter, she
discussed her experience serving on the CAC. Alfaro Soto and other members like her are shaping the future priorities of Jackson Care Connect by sharing their perspectives, and we are committed to making their voices heard by continuously improving our language and interpretation services. Keynote speaker Dr. Alicia Moreland Capuia, MD talked about racism and how health equity affects the triple aim. With her perspective as a clinician and advocate for health equity, Moreland Capuia engaged attendees in a discussion of the issues unique to Jackson County, as partners acknowledged the disparities faced in our region, and how much more work remains to be done. By the end of 2019, Jackson Care Connect was preparing for a large increase in membership, as we learned we would absorb more than 12,000 members from two other CCOs, AllCare and Primary Health of Josephine County. The sudden growth created new challenges, but they would, of course, pale in comparison to what 2020 held in store. With a firm foundation in place and the right partners at the table, we will continue our work toward a healthier, more stable and more inclusive Jackson County.
Improving access to behavioral health has always been a priority, and in 2017, we were one of the first CCOs to integrate the behavioral health benefit. As a result of the broader focus on mental health, utilization of the behavioral health benefit has steadily increased. In 2019 the community came together to create the community health improvement plan All In For Health. Informed by a recent community health assessment, All In For Health affirmed three priorities: behavioral health, housing and parenting support. These priorities validated the work the CCO was already focused on. They also aligned with the priorities the Oregon Health Authority established for CCOs in the 2020-2024 contracting process. Jackson Care Connect was one of two CCOs awarded a five-year contract in the county, and the only one awarded a contract without stipulations. These health priorities are best addressed by collaboration with community partners like Rogue Retreat, which helps people who are homeless with supportive housing and case management. In 2019, Rogue Retreat completed the second phase of Hope Village, a tiny house development Jackson Care Connect supported financially. Hope Village provides people with an important first step on the pathway to secure housing.
Keynote speaker Dr. Alicia Moreland Capuia (right) shares insights in a small-group discussion.
This year, 195 Jackson Care Connect members were served by Rogue Retreat’s services. Jackson Care Connect made progress on another complex community health issue in 2019: medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. Our staff convened a new learning collaborative, which provided a forum for shared learning and training on best practices. The collaborative is a monthly series with representatives from community justice, health providers, hospital staff, Veterans Administration and community organizations. The conference that Curtis Ziegler kicked off took on housing, MAT and more, with a focus on health equity throughout. Diana Alfaro Soto, a member of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), addressed the conference in Spanish, her first language. Speaking through an interpreter, she
discussed her experience serving on the CAC. Alfaro Soto and other members like her are shaping the future priorities of Jackson Care Connect by sharing their perspectives, and we are committed to making their voices heard by continuously improving our language and interpretation services. Keynote speaker Dr. Alicia Moreland Capuia, MD talked about racism and how health equity affects the triple aim. With her perspective as a clinician and advocate for health equity, Moreland Capuia engaged attendees in a discussion of the issues unique to Jackson County, as partners acknowledged the disparities faced in our region, and how much more work remains to be done. By the end of 2019, Jackson Care Connect was preparing for a large increase in membership, as we learned we would absorb more than 12,000 members from two other CCOs, AllCare and Primary Health of Josephine County. The sudden growth created new challenges, but they would, of course, pale in comparison to what 2020 held in store. With a firm foundation in place and the right partners at the table, we will continue our work toward a healthier, more stable and more inclusive Jackson County.
CareOregon Advantage
Any company worth its salt has a “why.” At CareOregon, ours is to bring health (not just health care) to those who need it most. After more than a decade of focusing on Medicaid members, we realized there was more we could do to help people in need beyond Medicaid. Regardless of risk, we knew we needed to step in.
In 2006, after 12 years of serving the Medicaid population, CareOregon launched into the Medicare space by forming CareOregon Advantage Plus, a dual-eligible special needs plan (D-SNP). Even in the face of different regulations, a mismatch in federal and state policies, new financial models, a competitive market and other challenges, CareOregon Advantage has remained committed to these members and expanded the program to the 13,000 members it now serves. Teresa Learn, Chief Financial Officer, who has been the executive lead on CareOregon Advantage since 2015, remarked, “There aren’t a lot of plans that only focus on this population — the fully integrated dual eligible members. It’s a really hard model to make work, but we’ve stuck with it to support our members.” Members who are “dual-eligible” are entitled to both Medicare and Medicaid coverage, while “special needs” plans are designed for members with specific and chronic health needs that require additional care. By establishing CareOregon Advantage as a D-SNP, we were able to offer health care to the most underserved members, “people who have fallen through the cracks among a population that
Participants in CareOregon Advantage’s focus groups, who represent the diverse perspectives and experiences among our membership.
has already fallen through the cracks,” as CareOregon Chief of Staff Jeremiah Rigsby puts it. Committed to serving our members no matter the challenge, we strove to figure out how to make CareOregon Advantage work on multiple levels:
- 1. Logically, to influence policy on a national and state level.
- 2. Thoughtfully, by gaining a deep understanding of our members’ and providers’ realities so we could address their needs.
- 3. Financially, to create a sustainable plan.
Our public policy team quickly discovered that, on the federal level, Medicare reimbursement didn’t consider differing state rules or the realities of dual-eligible special needs plans like CareOregon Advantage. Simply put, the reimbursement the government provided did not cover the medical costs of special needs plan members. The turning point came in 2015, when CareOregon staff met with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. His advocacy with the Obama administration led to a change in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) policies that changed the rules around reimbursement. In 2019, the CareOregon Advantage team sought to expand its understanding of member needs and experiences by conducting seven focus groups comprised of members speaking four different languages: English, Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese. Staff received feedback on a range of topics including member communication, provider experience, benefits and services, and thoughts on plan improvements. “These groups really helped us identify what members love about us and where the program could use some improvements,” says Stefanie Cao, Senior Manager of Marketing and Sales for CareOregon Advantage, “We stopped guessing and actually asked what they needed — and then acted on it.”
Member insights gained in the focus groups led to the following plan improvements:
- Adding funds and increased coverage to our popular over-the-counter debit card for health-related items.
- Offering two weeks of meals delivered at home after a hospital stay.
- Providing a free gym membership through Silver & Fit.
One member, James, was so thankful to have a plan that follows up on his feedback: “For a long time, I said, ‘Get a gym membership for us!’ Recently, they did! They’re trying to get you healthy by reminding you and paying you to go exercise.” 2019 was one of CareOregon Advantage’s most profitable years in recent history. It was a direct reflection of our member-focused approach and CMS policy changes, combined with substantial work on innovative provider risk agreements. As the program continues to grow, our commitment to speaking with our members on a more personalized level and acting on their feedback will be crucial to remain competitive. In 2020 our Medicare population faces new challenges as they access health care in an environment significantly altered by the coronavirus pandemic. The CareOregon Advantage team is responding by talking to members, examining roadblocks and adapting the program to make sure members get the care they need, now and into the future.
We strive to serve in a supporting capacity to the Tribal staff that run the health centers on the reservations. We help members with care coordination in order to give clinic staff more time to serve members face-to-face. In turn, we rely on health center staff to help us understand issues and how our coordination team can help find solutions. Coordinators’ work includes finding dentists or behavioral health providers throughout the state who accept fee-for-service insurance, helping members remove roadblocks when authorizations for care are needed, and more. Our primary goal is always to connect Tribal members to care, even in situations where providers are not set up to accept the OHP. As our care coordination staff undertakes this work, they help providers improve their processes so other members will not face similar issues in the future. CareOregon Tribal care coordinators also receive training to understand the needs and circumstances of each of the nine federally qualified Tribes. CareOregon is honored to serve local Tribes, and our yearly renewal shows us that the program is working as Tribes need it to. As we look to the future, we’ll continue to discover new opportunities that allow us to match Tribal needs with CareOregon’s strengths and strive to adapt to Tribes’ needs when times of crisis arise.
Housecall Providers
It started with a doctor waking in the middle of the night with the term “house call” on her mind. Little did she know that this dream would build an organization that has become nothing short of a miracle for the more than 12,000 community members it has served — people who were left to fend for themselves because their medical needs couldn’t be met in a traditional clinic setting.
Hospice care with heart: Patient Gino Damico takes a spin in a 1966 Chevelle, arranged by hospice nurse Gillian Beck van Heemstra.
Housecall Providers was founded in 1995 and has cared for homebound adults — those living with severe disabilities or serious illness — as well as those entering the final stage of their lives. After more than 20 years of this vital work, Housecall Providers was acquired by its longtime partner CareOregon, a partnership that is providing new stability and breadth to Housecall Providers’ services. As a child, Benneth Husted, DO, used to accompany her father on house calls to visit his patients. Remembering the personal care her father delivered, Husted was inspired to
offer a new model of care for homebound patients. One of her first calls was to Multnomah County’s Aging and Disability Services department, to see if in-home services would be useful or desired. The staff were happily shocked, because the services Husted proposed were unheard of at the time. Soon, she had more than 100 patients, and it was then that she realized the enormity of the need for in-home medical care throughout the Portland metro area. Home-based care for seriously ill, complex patients made sense for clinicians and family caregivers, but the health care system lagged behind, not yet ready to embrace the home- based medical model.
For years, Housecall Providers’ staff did double duty, serving patients and families with compassionate, critical care while working to improve the clinical model and advocating for higher reimbursement rates to meet costs. The peace and simplicity of dying in one’s own home — in familiar surroundings, with friends and family by one’s side, rather than in a hospital setting — is how most of us wish to spend the rest of our lives. Although 70% of Americans say they would like to die at home, only 31% do. Housecall Providers recognized this need, and in 2009 they added hospice care to their primary care services so staff could be with their patients throughout the course of their lives. Today, nearly all of Housecall Providers’ hospice patients die at home.
Protecting a style of care
Housecall Providers’ expansion of services made sense for patient care, but it came with challenges. They were losing revenue on their fee-for-service model and were surviving almost solely on grants and donations. In 2016, amid increased competition and higher costs, Housecall Providers was in peril and looking for the right partner. CareOregon had already worked with Housecall Providers for more than 20 years and recognized that
their services were essential for a high-risk and costly segment of our membership. The number of “frail, homebound patients was only going to grow as the population aged,” says Rebecca Ramsay, CEO of Housecall Providers and, at the time, CareOregon’s Executive Director of Population Health. “This was an amazing opportunity for CareOregon to venture into a care delivery system and protect this style of care for the broader community.” The partnership between Housecall Providers and CareOregon, solidified in 2017, immediately expanded the patient population to include a younger demographic. These members had a higher prevalence of behavioral health concerns, which meant a shift was needed in the care model. The staff began training in trauma- informed care and Motivational Interviewing techniques, so they were better prepared to care for this diverse population.
Benefits of joining the CareOregon family
The affiliation also brought other much- needed benefits: CareOregon’s IT team helped optimize and modernize Housecall Providers’ electronic health record system, upgraded their phones to a more stable system and enhanced the security of their information systems. CareOregon’s legal department assisted in the review
of Housecall Providers’ vendor contracts, ensuring they weren’t taking on more risk than required, and also helped to maintain a high level of compliance in all business areas: security, privacy, billing and clinical. Ultimately, through closer integration with CareOregon’s regional care teams, Housecall Providers was able to collaborate with other parts of CareOregon’s provider network, who then began to refer patients more consistently. Housecall Providers has also helped train other in-home care organizations throughout the country, including a recent gathering of 26 hospice organizations.
Navigating a new reality
The partnership with CareOregon gave Housecall Providers the stability to offer new services. Many of us knows someone — a family member, a friend, a colleague — who’s been diagnosed with an illness that changes their life. Those treated at home not only need help managing their symptoms, they need someone to help them navigate this new reality, someone to walk them through the difficult choices they face, ensuring their wants and needs are being addressed. Housecall Providers’ Advanced Illness Care (AIC) program, formed in October 2017, meets the real needs of seriously ill patients.
These patients often have 30 additional life challenges like housing and food insecurity or struggles with substance use or mental health issues. Community- based palliative care, like that provided by the AIC program, offers patients receiving clinic-based medical care an extra layer of support to address their serious illness. Ramsay says, “We have succeeded and grown because we’re providing a service that’s so needed in the community, something no one else is doing. We’re serving the invisible patient population that suffers daily and often behind closed doors. This is a hard model, and not for the faint of heart — financially and emotionally.” Today, Housecall Providers serves around 2,500 patients and families in the Portland metro area each year. The need is as large as ever.
Reaching out to diverse communities
Three million people in the United States could benefit from in-home or palliative care, but only 15% of those people receive it. As Housecall Providers continues to grow, their attention will shift toward ensuring their services cover members who can’t access care due to health inequities. With a newly formed equity, diversity and inclusion committee, staff members are calling on the relationships they have fostered with local social service agencies to identify and reach out to these communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new set of challenges for Housecall Providers, forcing care teams to pivot from their home visit model to mostly telehealth visits. High- risk patients simply can’t wait to be safely seen in person. Although shifting to telehealth systems so quickly was challenging for both Housecall Providers and their patients, they were eager for this new ability to serve, which will result in improvements and changes for the future of each of their three programs.
Angels on earth
The heart of Housecall Providers’ mission — to serve patients, family members, and caregivers — will continue to inspire them to seek new and innovative ways to care for this segment of our community. “I believe that without the tender loving care of Housecall Providers Hospice, my father would have died a long time ago,” Radha Kumar, the daughter of a recent hospice patient said. “The quality and professionalism of the care we’ve received has been so consistent, and they’ve been so dedicated and courteous. I think you are all angels — actual angels on earth.”
CLOSING LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Twenty-five years and counting — Serving our communities
From the first conversation between leaders at the Multnomah County Health Department and the Oregon Health and Science University in 1993 to today, one thing has been consistent with CareOregon – we provide compassionate care for our most vulnerable neighbors. The vision of providing person-centered care in the promising Oregon Health Plan has grown into a company with a statewide presence across seven lines of business. Today, CareOregon represents a crucial component of Oregon’s health care landscape and is a respected partner to organizations across the country and world.
Creating and building an organization so influential and cherished is an immense accomplishment. To recognize that fact, we marked our silver anniversary with staff celebrations in Portland and Jackson County. We also held a reunion that brought together our founders, the four previous chief executive officers and dozens of the incredible people who had a hand in lifting CareOregon to its current position. The passion, wisdom and creativity of CEOs Mary Lou Hennrich, David Ford, Pat Curran and Scott Clement were absolutely critical to CareOregon and its future. Today we serve nearly one of every 16 citizens in the state, a responsibility we take extremely seriously. As a community-based nonprofit company, we have a fiduciary duty to be good stewards of our funds. Beyond that, we are compelled to serve our members with respect and equity. The best team in the business has made amazing things happen, powered by our SPIRITED values of Service, Passion, Innovation, Results, Initiative, Teamwork, Equity and Diversity. We are excited to continue our work and relationships with members, clinical providers and community partners.
Eric C. Hunter, President & CEO, was honored to gather prior CEOs to express CareOregon’s deep gratitude.
We are focused on identifying the best ways to enhance the broad, cascading impact of our efforts, which we call the CareOregon Effect: When our members are healthier, their lives are stronger, and their family and our communities are stronger. We welcome you to join us for our next 25 years of making health care work for everyone.
Eric C. Hunter
President & Chief Executive Officer, CareOregon
Financial Summary 2019
A major focus for CareOregon in 2019 was preparing three letters of intent for the 2020-2024 cycle of contracts for coordinated care organizations, or CCO 2.0. We were gratified when the Oregon Health Authority awarded us full five-year contracts for Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect and Health Share/CareOregon. Other major efforts included preparing staff and building provider networks to align with expanded responsibilities coming in 2020 with CCO 2.0.
Meanwhile, the number of members we serve continued to grow, with 12,400 members added during the year. CareOregon’s financial performance remained strong. Our practice is to hold sufficient financial reserves, which enables us to weather the ups and downs inherent in health care. In 2019, our finances stabilized after the large influx of metro-area members in 2018. By being good stewards of public funds, we were well-positioned to absorb the losses we experienced in 2016-2017.
- ,
- members
- $ . billion
- total revenue
- $ million
- total assets
- 273,836
- members
- $1.39 billion
- total revenue
- $568million
- total assets
Community Investment 2019
In 2019, CareOregon awarded more than $3.8 million in charitable giving that included sponsorships and grants for supporting community efforts that lessen the impacts of homelessness, childhood trauma and social determinants of health. To increase health equity and redress health disparities, in 2016 we prioritized groups that serve culturally specific populations.
More than 40% of our community giving in 2019 was directed to these organizations, up from less than 5% in 2015. We also made more than $2 million in outcome-based payments in 2019 to provider networks in our three regions.
These reward improved member experience and excellence in care, as determined by metrics. As we work with our partners to remedy inequities and improve health, we’re building stronger families, communities and futures.
- CareOregon
- Columbia Pacific CCO
- Jackson Care Connect
- community directed giving
- $ . million
- $ thousand
- $ thousand
- PROVIDER CAPACITY &
OUTCOME-BASED PAYMENTS - $ thousand
- $ thousand
- $ thousand
- CareOregon
- community directed giving
- $3.5million
- PROVIDER CAPACITY &
OUTCOME-BASED PAYMENTS - $964thousand
- Columbia Pacific CCO
- community directed giving
- $194thousand
- PROVIDER CAPACITY &
OUTCOME-BASED PAYMENTS - $895thousand
- Jackson Care Connect
- community directed giving
- $112thousand
- PROVIDER CAPACITY &
OUTCOME-BASED PAYMENTS - $322million