Healthcare issues troubling to many
Meeting of state healthcare committee draws standing-room only crowd
From our weekly issue dated February 25, 2009
Scores of citizens packed Anne G. Basker auditorium in Grants Pass to hear the health care committee meeting. (Photo by Scott Jorgensen, IVN )
Legislators heard an earful of concerns from small-business owners and health-care representatives Monday, Feb. 23, when the Oregon House Health Care Committee held a special meeting at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
More than 130 people attended the meeting, with every seat in the auditorium filled and its entryway flooded with spectators.
The meeting was attended by committee members Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), Chris Harker (D-Beaverton), Ron Maurer (R-Grants Pass), Jim Thompson (R-Dallas) and Chris Garrett (D-Lake Oswego). Committee members Scott Bruun (R-West Linn), Tina Kotek (D-Portland) and Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon City) were absent. Members Ben Cannon and Michael Dembrow, (both D-Portland) joined via telephone from the capitol in Salem.
Most of the meeting consisted of a hearing on House Bill 2009, which Greenlick described as a “very complex bill” with a “very complex set of amendments.” Greenlick, committee chairman, turned the gavel over to Vice Chairman Maurer for the hearing.
Roy Vinyard, Asante Health Systems chief executive officer (CEO) and president, was among the first to testify. Most of his comments were in opposition to a proposed tax on insurance companies and hospitals that was included in HB 2009 for the sake of drawing matching federal dollars.
Vinyard said that Asante, with more than 4,000 employees, is the largest employer in Southwestern Oregon. He said that the statewide payroll for acute-care hospitals is $2.7 billion and that Asante’s share is $250 million.
Asante provided $51 million in uncompensated care last year, the CEO said, as well as $11 million in bad debt and a total of $126 million in community care.
He detailed the company’s recent responses to troubling financial figures, which included freezes on most capital expenses, non-mandated travel, open positions and new hires; the sale of its Hearthstone home-care services, and closures of the Genesis drug treatment center, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and the child-care program at Rogue Valley Medical Center (RVMC) in Medford.
Fourteen management employees and 80 other staff members have been laid off recently, Vinyard added.
Since 2004, RVMC has paid a .7 percent tax to draw federal money, he said. A 2007 Memorandum of Understanding with several top legislative officials stated that the tax would be returned to hospitals for Medicare reimbursements, he related, adding that the new proposal lacks such a provision.
The Asante chief said that a recent study showed that the proposed provider tax would cost the state’s hospitals $230 million, and that only $203 million of that would be returned to them. He added that Asante would have to reconsider several programs if the tax were passed into law.
Greenlick responded that $600 million in state funds would draw around $1 billion in federal funds.
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Roseburg insurance agent Kelsey Wood testified that his industry is diverse and competitive right now. He noted that more than 30 government mandates help drive up costs.
Angelica Zavala Ruppee, finance director for La Clinica De Valla in Medford, said that community health centers absorb the increase in uninsured patients.
Also testifying was Kevin Marr, owner of Motel Del Rogue in Grants Pass. Marr said that current health-care policy creates a “lose, lose, lose situation.”
Marr said that he wants to provide health care for his employees, even those who only work part time. However, giving additional hours to some employees would cause them to lose their coverage under the Oregon Health Plan.
During the hearing, Maurer said that the nation’s continuing health-care crisis is not a partisan issue.
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