CAN hosted a Health care Forum on Thursday, September 26th at Willamette Christian Center.
The event was livestreamed on YouTube thanks to Whole Community News: https://www.youtube.com/live/mfOQNofjofc
This was a City-wide event to discuss the shortage of health care and loss of a hospital in our community.
We received over 75 questions for the Forum! While we weren’t able to get through all of them that night, we are working with the panelists to get answers and will post them here as they are received.
Questions and Responses provided by Peace Health:
A small hospital with non-corporate public clinics could be located on the West Side, possibly in the abandoned chip factory off the end of W. 18th. That building has water, lots of space, and parking. We would need a simple drugs-only pharmacy located alongside, in order to break the stranglehold of the corporate chain pharmacies (CVS etc), saving patient’s money and hassle. This would not cut into what regular pharmacies sell besides drugs. How could this hospital and its pharmacy be exempted from Pharmacy Benefit Managers and other bloated “medical” operations?
To PeaceHealth's understanding, retro-fitting an existing industrial building to use as a hospital would be far more expensive than a new, purpose-built facility.
Can a small public hospital still interact with the larger fully appointed hospitals when necessary? Would physicians have hospital privileges at the larger operations? Is this even necessary, with the proliferation of Hospitalists? How would Medicare and the Oregon Health Plan fit in with this new hospital?
Absolutely, providers (including hospitalists) are often credentialed at multiple hospitals.
My question is this: why can't we educate more doctors? I was told by a doctor recently that OHSU accepted only 5% of its applicants to medical school. The doctor I spoke to believed the bar to entrance needs to be that high in order to produce good doctors. I think we need to question that theory, in light of our short supply of doctors these days. It might not be working. What is the reaction of the medical community to the possibility of lowering the bar in order to produce a better supply of doctors for the community at large?
PeaceHealth is helping educate healthcare workers locally with contributions to both Lane Community College and Bushnell University. These funds are helping local students earn the necessary degrees for high-paying roles in our hospitals and clinics. While there is no local medical school in Lane County, PeaceHealth would certainly support the creation of one.
It’s impossible to find a primary care physician who takes original Medicare. Any advice?
PeaceHealth accepts nearly all insurance plans, including medicare and medicaid.
Peace Health: Oregon is second to last providing only 1.66 hospital beds per 1000 and the Eugene/Springfield (SMA) has only 1.3 hospital beds per 1000. What will you do to make up for this dire situation?
PeaceHealth has already received Oregon Health Authority approval to build a 42-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital near RiverBend and is actively planning additional expansion.
I have heard and read that Lane County doctors in group practices have as many as 2,800 patients in their care. What are you doing to decrease the number to a manageable size, to ensure more time with each patient, and to decrease waiting times for an appointment?
Prior to the OMG clinic closure in South Eugene, PeaceHealth had reduced its primary care waiting list in Eugene/Springfield to zero. We do once again have a waiting list, but are actively recruiting new providers which will allow us to both increase access to new patients and reduce panel sizes for existing patients. PeaceHealth has also reserved time for same-day appointment in many clincs.
Where can someone with a 50 year history of diabetes get care in the Eugene area? At the beginning of 2024, we switched our insurance plan from a Medicare Advantage plan through United Health Care to one with Atrio. Our research had been thorough and comprehensive, and we had ascertained that all of my husband’s many medical providers would continue to be covered by the new insurance. We found that everyone, including OMG WOULD be covered, when we did that research in October, before we would be REQUIRED to make a change by early December.
In March, when we called to confirm our next appointment and schedule my husband’s usual blood draw, we were surprised to hear that OMG would NOT accept Atrio insurance at all! We were told my husband was not ALLOWED to see his endocrinologist again.
Atrio assured us that they WOULD cover my husband’s care, and they have guaranteed that if we pay an out-of-network co-pay ($25) they will pay the bill submitted to them. They said that since this is a Medicare Advantage plan, as he had before, he could not be refused and they would be required to pay. Yet, the front office refused to allow him access to his doctor and refuses to bill our insurance.
PeaceHealth accepts nearly all insurance plans, including medicare and medicaid.
Is it true that the Homeless population seeking services at Riverbend ED, are issued trespassing citations if they don’t leave in a timely manner upon discharge?
PeaceHealth accepts all patients at our emergency departments. Patients do need to leave the premises when discharged as we need to continue serving other patients. In situations where any patient becomes combative, law enforcement is contacted.
Peacehealth is increasingly contracting out care delivery and management with Lifepoint, a for-profit corporation owned by Apollo, the largest private equity operator in the country. How is this consistent with being an untaxed non-profit charitable organization?
PeaceHealth has worked with many different partners on joint venture projects. In those situations, PeaceHealth is the majority owner and can maintain our mission and values when providing care.
What is your professional organization doing to train more primary care providers nationally, and are you advocating for tuition-free training with federal funding?
PeaceHealth provides tuition reimbursement for both new providers and nurses, and tuition assistance for our current caregivers to earn advanced degrees.
Years ago - idea of OHSU + UO creating a teaching hospital at University District - not Kaiser as they only take their insurance?
PeaceHealth would happily support the creation of a medical school in Lane County.
Community members insured by United Health Medicare Advantage plans experience significant primary care barriers due to a lack of local providers contracted with the plan. How are healthcare groups addressing this issue?
PeaceHealth accepts nearly all insurance plans, including medicare and medicaid.
Will there be more options for urgent care?
PeaceHealth has capacity to serve additional patients at our University District urgent care. No other urgent cares are being planned.
There are about 30 different languages spoken in Eugene public schools. What is being done to hire medical staff who speak these languages, and on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate current medical staff as being culturally competent?
Hiring multilingual staff is a priority but it is rare. PeaceHealth employs an in-house translation services team and also utilizies a live translation service to better communicate with patients.
How are we pushing preventative care in Lane county? With access issues improving for outpatient services-- how are we as a community pushing preventative care to avoid excess usage of urgent cares and emergency rooms?
Recruiting and hiring additional primary care providers is the first step in solving this problem. Another is the shift in how PeaceHealth is reimbursed for care, to a value-based care model where compensation is based on quality rather than volume. Value-based care has been discussed for decades, it has been a slow change, but it is happening.
Contact the panelists:
PeaceHealth Dr. James McGovern, Chief Hospital Executive Contact Us | PeaceHealth & DLPHOPublicAffairs@peacehealth.org
Optum OR Dr. Philip Capp, Executive Medical Director
Trillium CHP Dr. Jeanne Savage, Chief Medical Officer Jeanne.Savage@trilliumchp.com
Clear Health DPC Dr. Nicholas Jones, Founder & CEO nickjonesmd@clearhealthdpc.com
Volunteers In Medicine Deleesa Meashintubby, Executive Director DMeashintubby@vim-clinic.org
Lane County H&HS Eve Gray, Director hsdirector@lanecountyor.gov
Oregon House of Reps Julie Fahey, Speaker of the House Rep.JulieFahey@oregonlegislature.gov
Oregon House of Reps Nancy Nathanson Rep.NancyNathanson@oregonlegislature.gov
McKenzie Willamette David Butler, CEO (emails to marketing VP) JWaterman@qhcus.com
