More CCO Transparency Passes Out of Committee

According to the Lund Report, HB 2960, which will require CCOs to take public comment at their board meetings, as well as open their mandated Community Advisory Concils to the public, has passed out of the House committee, which means it still has a chance to become law this legislative session. 

Although the majority of the 15 CCOs do open their council meetings to the public, as stated in the Lund Report article from today, "at least one -- Umpqua Health Alliance in Roseburg — holds those meetings in private and refuses to disclose the names of their council members."

Oregon Patients Rights Association has been advocating for public accountability and transparency of these CCOs since we formed at the end of last year.  Our requests for information about those who serve on the Community Advisory Committee for our local CCO, Umpqua Health Alliance have been rejected by DCIPA (the private for-profit doctors' group that owns and controls UHA).  It seems that this unwillingess to share even information about who is suppose to be reprenting us at these Community Advisory Councils made some lawmakers understand the problem with CCOs operating in private. 

The reluctance to even tell the public who served on the public outreach body led several legislators to support the bill who earlier had been skeptical. .
“That testimony is what made me convinced that we do need this bill,” Keny-Guyer said.

Although the much stronger Senate Bill he sponsored did make it out of committee,  State Senator Chip Shields understands the issue quite clearly:  "CCOs are about the massive reallocation of public dollars."  As such, we cannot allow them to operate in private. 

Contact your state representative, particularly Tim Freeman and ask him to support HB 2960 and other demands for CCO accountability and transparency.

DCIPA to Turn ATRIO Shares Over to Their Joint Venture with Mercy: Architrave

In January of this year, DCIPA, LLC (a for profit private company owned by your local doctors) announced its joint venture with Mercy Medical Center (a non-profit Catholic Health Initiative charity).  As part of this joint venture, DCIPA offered to bring to the partnership their share of ownership in the Medicare Advantage Plan, ATRIO.  Because ATRIO is regulated by the state Insurance Division, they must hold a public hearing to decide if this acquistion complies with applicable laws and is in the best interest of the community. 

This hearing is going to be held this coming Monday, April 22, 2013 from 11 am to 12 pm at Mercy Medical Center.  Information about the meeting, as well as links to the Insurance Division website where you can read the proposal submitted by DCIPA and Mercy regarding this acquisiton is set out below. 

If you are interested in the quality of heath care in our community, you should attend, even if you don't have Medicare or ATRIO because there are implications in this partnership that will impact every heatlh care consumer in our community. 

Copy of Public Hearing Notice:

 

"Notice of Public Hearing
Before the Insurance Commissioner of the State of Oregon
Department of Consumer and Business Services
In the matter of the Acquisition of Shares of ATRIO Health Plans, Inc., by
Architrave Health, LLC
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Monday, April 22, 2013
Mercy Medical Center
2700 Stewart Parkway Roseburg, Oregon Conference Rooms A and B
Architrave Health, LLC, jointly owned by Douglas County Individual Practice Association, Inc. (DCIPA) and Mercy Medical Center, Inc (Mercy), is proposing to acquire the approximately 30 percent of ATRIO Health Plans, Inc. (ATRIO) that is currently owned by DCIPA. ATRIO holds an insurance license and has a Medicare Advantage contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, whereby it operates various Medicare Advantage Plans and provides Medicare covered health care benefits to qualified Medicare beneficiaries in Douglas County, Oregon. The purpose of the hearing is to permit public comment on the proposed transfer of stock.
A copy of the Form A may be examined at the administrative offices of Architrave Health, LLC, 1813 West Harvard, Suite 448, Roseburg, or at the offices of the DCBS Insurance Division, 350 Winter Street NE, Room 440, Salem. The Form A is also available on the Insurance Division’s web site at the following link: http://www.cbs.state.or.us/ins/insurer/financial_regulation/acquisition-merger.html
Written comments about the proposed acquisition of stock must be received by 5:00 p.m. on April 26, 2013. Comments should be sent to Russell Latham, Financial Regulation Section, Oregon Insurance Division, P. O. Box 14480, Salem, OR 97309-0405"

 

Link to Insurance Division Info re Acquistion-Merger:


http://www.cbs.state.or.us/ins/insurer/financial_regulation/acquisition-merger.html

Go to the above website and you will see:

               Acquisitions/mergers–Form A filings

            Pending acquisitions/mergers

• ATRIO Health Plans, Inc.
  By Architrave Health, LLC, Mercy Medical Center, Inc.
  • Form A
  • Public Hearing

Clinc on Form A and read what DCIPA & Mercy Submitted to the Insurance Division re this merger.

NO PUBLIC OVERSIGHT for Umpqua Health Alliance, CCO for Douglas County

Representative Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, as Chair of the House Health Committee, has put forth HB-2960, a bill that would ensure greater public scrutiny of coordinated care organizations.

According to a post online yesterday by Christopher David Gray, a reporter at The Lund Report,  "... in Roseburg, Umpqua Health Alliance’s meetings are so secretive, even its community advisory council — a body created by most CCOs as a vehicle for public outreach — holds private meetings without public oversight."

At a town hall meeting held 29 March at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg Oregon, conservative Republican Representative Tim Freeman admitted that even his request for the list of members of the Community Advisory Council (CAC) for our local CCO, the Umpqua Health Alliance, had been denied. Yet, Freeman testified in Salem on Monday 15 April he is opposed to HB 2960, making CCOs subject to public meetings law.

“There’s nothing that keeps CCOs from having open meetings,” said Freeman, who believes different communities should be able to create their own standards of transparency. Really? The folks running our local CCO are operating on the "standard of transparency" of SECRECY (meaning NO public transparency.) 

This is truly a nightmare situation for those of us living in Douglas County, where DCIPA, a private, for-profit doctors group, operates as a monopoly.  Deemed by the state to be exempt from anti-trust laws, DCIPA under the leadership of Dr. Robert Dannenhoffer, has been controlling the delivery of health care services, serving fewer and fewer patients while receiving millions of dollars of public funds through the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Now, with the formation of Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) according to Gray, 

"Billions of Medicaid dollars will be delegated to Oregon’s 15 coordinated care organizations, which are set up locally to deliver care within the Oregon Health Plan. They receive a global budget that must meet strict cost controls or forfeit federal money.

If successful, the quasi-public, quasi-private CCOs might be tasked with delivering healthcare for many more Oregonians in the future beyond those on the Oregon Health Plan including public employees, school teachers and administrators and people who work in the private sector."

The health and even the lives of our neighbors are at stake in the struggle to force public accountability of CCOs. Please take action now to make things right and contact Rep. Mitch Greenlick, the other members of the House Health Committee, your personal legislative representatives, and your friends and family and urge them to support HB-2960, calling for public scrutiny of CCOs. 


Click here to read The Lund Report article by Christopher David Gray.

Mercy CEO's Compensation over 2/3 Million $ a Year!

According to The Lund Report, Mercy Medical Center CEO, Kelly Morgan was paid $696,946* in compensation for 2011 broken down as follows:

 

Base pay: $424,199;

Bonuses: $179,533;

Deferred Compensation: $58,064;

Nontaxable Benefits: $14,218; &

Other Compensation: $20,932.

 

 

During the same year, the percentage of charity given by this non-profit Catholic ministry was down by 23.7 percent, even though "profits" were up by  62.3%. 

There seems to be something wrong with this, given Mercy Medical Centers' whole point of being is to provide charity. 

 

*Although Morgan is Mercy Medical Center's CEO, his salary is not officially reported on their books because he is paid by Mercy's parent organization Catholic Health Initiatives

 

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/hospital_finances_rogue_regional_three_rivers_sky_lakes_mercy_medical_st_charles

UHA to Hold "Community Forum" Tomorrow

Umpqua Health Alliance (UHA) is holding a "Community Forum" to let us know what Coordinated Care Organizations are and to get our ideas.  The CCO forum is being held Thursday, April 4, 2013 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at Winston Community Center, 440 SE Grape Street. 

These brief public relations meetings should not be confused with the openess and transparency being sought by Oregon Patients Rights Association, or being proposed in the Oregon Senate by Senate Bill 412.

OPRA encourages everyone who cares about the quality of health care in our community to attend.