Funds to build health in Central Oregon made possible by efficiency and success of the Central Oregon Coordinated Care Organization.
The Central Oregon Health Council will invest more than $6 million in one-time health improvement projects and wellness promotions in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties in 2016. These funds will promote high-quality health care, prevention services, and health education to improve health and wellness in Central Oregon.
Together, PacificSource Community Solutions, Inc., and the Central Oregon Health Council lead the PacificSource Central Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), which partners with major health care providers in Central Oregon to serve more than 55,000 members enrolled through the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), Oregon’s Medicaid program.
In partnership with the Central Oregon Health Council, through a Joint Management Agreement, PacificSource agreed to cap its profits at just two percent and return any additional profits back to the community. These funds are available for reinvestment in the community to support health improvement because the CCO performed far better than budgeted in 2014.
“The Central Oregon Health Council’s vision is to createa healthier Central Oregon, and our partnership with PacificSource is a critical component of this vision,” said Donna Mills, executive director of the Central Oregon Health Council.
“This community reinvestment model is unique, and aligns with the original intent behind the creation of CCOs in the first place,” said Dan Stevens, Executive Vice President of Product Line Management for PacificSource and a Central Oregon Health Council Board member. “This partnership promotes transparency, accountability, and shared decision making to improve the health of the region.”
The Central Oregon Health Council and PacificSource spent a majority of 2015 gathering data from the region and compiling a Regional Health Assessment, which shows where the region stands from a health perspective at this point in time. Results from the Regional Health Assessment were used to create a four-year Regional Health Improvement Plan. More than 100 community volunteers collaborated to prioritize key factors that influence the health of our region, and to create goals for where the region should be from a health perspective in 2019. The Regional Health Assessment and Regional Health Improvement Plan can be viewed at http://cohealthcouncil.org/
“Witnessing community members work together to create the Regional Health Improvement Plan was exciting, and it’s even more inspiring to see how many community members have joined in now that the actual work is being done to improve health in the region,” said Leslie Neugebauer, PacificSource’s Central Oregon CCO Director. “The funds that are available to pay for education, service delivery, interventions, and training will be instrumental in supporting our efforts to develop a comprehensive, region-wide approach to health improvement.”
The Central Oregon Health Council has already received several targeted proposals to implement the Regional Health Improvement Plan, and believes that commitments of this nature will lead to a culture of wellness versus a culture of illness.
“We expect to approve several projects next month and will continue to review proposals throughout the summer,” said Mills.
About the Central Oregon Health Council:
The Central Oregon Health Council consists of health care, county, and other community members from Central Oregon who work together with PacificSource Community Solutions to lead the CCO. The Central Oregon Health Council works in partnership with PacificSource to develop strategies and policies to serve the needs of CCO members in the region.
About PacificSource Community Solutions:
PacificSource Community Solutions, Inc. serves Medicaid members through its coordinated care organizations in Central Oregon and the Columbia Gorge. It is part of the PacificSource family of companies, which has a 77-year history and reputation for taking great care of people. PacificSource employs more than 700 people and serves more than 300,000 members with individual, employer, Medicare, and Medicaid plans throughout the Northwest.
