For years, health care reform has been a major platform for many candidates running for public office, as well as a key legislative priority for many Oregon legislators. Whether it’s decreasing the prices of pharmaceutical drugs, increasing the number of insured Oregonians, or ensuring underrepresented communities receive the care that they need, we have been fighting for some time to address these issues within our health systems.

As the novel coronavirus spreads through our communities, it has exposed weaknesses in our health delivery system, as well as the structures that govern those systems. It has also shown how Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) are able to deploy resources quickly to provide basic resources and keep people out of the hospital.

Indeed, one of the most important lessons we will learn from this pandemic is that our health care system was not fully equipped to handle it. How do we create a system that is able to respond more cohesively and comprehensively in a crisis?

One of the first steps taken during this pandemic was the collaboration of publicly owned hospitals and health systems with those that are privately owned. In every major health industry, public and private businesses and health care providers are coming together to ensure that we decrease the effects of this crisis. In the pharmaceutical industry, corporations and public health entities are working together to find a vaccine or therapy for the virus. Hospitals are coordinating so that public hospitals can discharge patients from their emergency department (ED) for care at private hospitals that may have more capacity. Will this willingness and ability to collaborate make these groups more inclined to compromise on health care transformation?

Another step that was quickly taken by officials was to increase access to telemedicine, by decreasing the barriers to this care. By relaxing rules around privacy (known as HIPAA laws), providers of all types may utilize FaceTime, Google Hangouts, and Skype. Not only were restrictions removed in many states including Oregon, providers will now be reimbursed at the same rate as providers seeing patients in person. Before this move, telemedicine was not something widely utilized in Oregon.

With the uptick in Oregonians projected to utilize OHP and our state’s CCOs rising to the challenge, will more legislators be interested in utilizing OHP at a higher rate, or expanding the coordinated care system? Oregon has never shied away from having the universal health care conversation, but what’s always been missing is how exactly we will achieve that goal. Will some of the changes made during this pandemic answer questions our legislators have previously had about how to deliver universal coverage for all?

We don’t know if any of these changes will stick, but we do know that Oregon’s CCOs have been leading the way in deploying resources to their communities in an unprecedented fashion, allowing them to serve their communities at a much faster rate.

With 360,901 identified cases of the novel coronavirus in our country, the state of New York has been identified as the epicenter of the outbreak and carries more than 130,000 confirmed cases. For weeks, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been calling on President Trump to use the Defense Production Act to secure more medical equipment and has also requested that the federal government release the 20,000 ventilators in stockpile to New York.

Despite his many calls for help, New York received only 400 ventilators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The state is now due to run out of ventilators as early as this week.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown heard his concerns and decided to act.

Thanks to Oregon’s aggressive social distancing measures, Oregon is on the right path to “flattening the curve,” leaving our state in a good position to aid other states that need assistance.

In an official statement, the Governor’s office said, “If Oregon later finds itself in need of ventilators, New York and other states will respond to our call for assistance.” Governor Brown in a later tweet said, “Oregon doesn’t have everything we need to fight COVID-19 – we need more PPE and testing – but we can help today with ventilators. We are all in this together.”

Currently, with the outbreak at its peak in New York, there are more than 15,000 people hospitalized, with more then 4,100 of those people not only in critical care, but also needing access to ventilators.

This unprecedented step taken by Governor Brown to aid another state doesn’t seem to be the last act of good our states will be taking. Shortly after Governor Brown made her decision to send ventilators to New York, Governor Gavin Newsom of California decided to take similar steps by loaning ventilators to states where COVID-19 is taking a heavier toll, like the state of New York.

Not only are our states working together to get each other much-needed ventilators, Governor Newsom announced yesterday that the State of California just inked new deals to manufacture 200 billion N95 masks per month. This huge increase in masks will not only meet the needs of Californians but could help other states with their shortage of personal protective equipment as well.

Oregon Legislators were due for a special session before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit our doorstep to address unfinished business from the 2020 Short Session. Little was accomplished in the short session due to partisan walkouts, and critical budgets remain unpassed. Now that legislators and other public officials are working on economic relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure to call a special session continues to rise.

This begs the question, when will the Governor call a special session, and what legislation will be considered? Will any of the 250+ unpassed bills from last session make a comeback, or will we be focusing solely on the crisis at hand?

We know the Legislature created a Joint Committee on Coronavirus Response, which includes a roster of 16 legislators called upon to assemble a stimulus package for the State of Oregon. This committee held four separate meetings in which legislators heard from industry leaders, agency directors, and experts. Members of the public were encouraged to submit written testimony for legislators to consider.

Now that our legislators have all the information and recommendations they need, it’s time to get down to crafting legislation in the form of a stimulus package. Our sources have shared that the Legislature is working around the clock to find solutions to support Oregonians through this time. It is our understanding that despite the differences our legislators have had in the past, they are working to create a bipartisan bill that will garner support from all legislators even before a special session is called. We are hopeful the Legislature can come to an agreement in the next week or two and call for a single-day session before mid-April.

Do we think that Leadership will allow legislation other than the coronavirus stimulus package? Maybe. But only if that legislation is fully bipartisan and will not cause tension between the parties.

Last week, the federal government passed a stimulus package aptly named the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This policy provides resources for individuals, small businesses, health care providers, hospital systems, corporations, and many more.

We’ve all heard about the federal legislation that will supposedly provide cash payments to Americans, but what does it really do? We went through the bill to see how it will affect people in our state, and in particular, the health care delivery system.

First, the truth about the cash payments to Americans: will every American receive $1,200 being reported in the news? The answer is yes, most adult Americans will have access to this cash payment, though some groups have been left out. According to the exact verbiage, individuals with a social security number earning up to $75,000 (based on 2019 income) will receive rebates of $1,200 per individual and $500 per child under 17. The payments scale down for those earning up to $99,000, and those earning above $99,000 will not be eligible for the rebate. You must have filed your taxes this year or last year to be eligible, and these rebates will only be garnished if back child support is owed.

The CARES Act also bolsters unemployment compensation by adding $600 to every unemployment compensation check, so no one will receive less than $600 per week through July 31, 2020. Medicaid benefits have also been expanded to include those that have been laid off or furloughed without pay due to COVID-19. Those who are self-employed, gig workers, independent contractors, or those with irregular work history are not usually covered, but under the CARES Act, they will be.

Businesses large and small shouldn’t fret! Rolled into the Act is relief in the form of tax credits, loans and loan relief, grants, and other emergency economic programs.

Though the CARES act is mainly an economic stimulus package, it does include rule and regulation changes for health care entities, as well as specific resources for providers, hospitals, and clinics. For example, many hospitals and clinics have significant concerns about cash flow due to the mass cancellations of elective services. The CARES Act creates the opportunity for hospitals to receive accelerated payments, in which qualified facilities can request a lump sum or periodic payments that could reflect up to six months of Medicare services. This direct injection of capital to our health care system is much needed, as hospitals stock up on supplies and continue to pay their nurses, doctors, CNAs, and many others.

This act also increases Medicare reimbursement COVID-19 patient care by 20 percent. This add-on payment recognizes increased costs incurred by providers and will be applied through the duration of the pandemic. Even providers and clinics that do not care for COVID-19 payments will see a two percent increase in Medicare reimbursement through December 31, 2020.

These increases in reimbursement and loan opportunities will help keep providers focused on caring for their patients. Find a more comprehensive list on how this legislation may affect you here.

While all of our member CCOs are doing amazing things in their communities, this week, we decided to highlight the work that AllCare Health has been putting in to ensure that the children in their service area do not go hungry, despite the closure of schools.

Most children attending school in the Three Rivers School District are on a meal assistance program (MAP), meaning that they receive free or reduced cost lunches while at school. While schools are closed due to the pandemic, the children on MAP would not have access to meals normally provided to them on a daily basis. For children living in poverty, their main nutrition comes from the meals they receive at school.

Because AllCare Health is so ingrained in their community, they knew how many children rely on this food resource, and immediately took action to fill that gap by partnering with the Oregon Food Bank and the Three Rivers School District.

At the end of the day, AllCare Health and partners were able to donate, package, and deliver 180 boxes of food that all clocked in at about 9 pounds of weight. Why 9 pounds you ask? Because the staff at AllCare health wanted to give as much food as possible, but also wanted children to be able to carry their food boxes home if they had to walk to pick it up. Not only did these amazing partners consider the weight of their food package, they also made decisions about what to include in it, based on what would be easy enough (and yummy enough!) for children to cook on their own, as many parents may still have work obligations during the day.

A lot of hard work and brainstorming went into ensuring that these meals were given out in a timely fashion. In fact, several AllCare staff members personally hand-packaged and delivered these boxes of food to different schools throughout the district, all because they wanted to give back to their community. Sam Engel of AllCare Health said, “We wanted to make sure that our families, our neighbors were getting what they needed during this time.”

Originally, this relief was only planned for the two weeks Oregon schools were supposed to be closed. With the extension of school closures to April 28, AllCare intends to continue this program for the next four weeks in conjunction with its partners. Though the current pilot project is in coordination with the Three Rivers School District, AllCare Health is working with other school districts to expand this program to other areas.

In an official statement, AllCare Health said “The AllCare Care Coordination department is acutely aware that food insecurity is the number one social determinant of health challenge in our community.” AllCare Health is so committed to ensuring that Oregonians have access to food, they are coordinating several other food-resource services specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic. Another initiative AllCare Health is undertaking is the utilization of traditional health care workers to deliver groceries to the curbs of their most vulnerable members.

Thank you, AllCare Health, for your dedication, expertise, and genuine concern for your community!