PacificSource Community Solution’s Central Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) announced that it will receive $11.9 million dollars from Quality Pool payments made by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to the CCO for quality performance during 2016. The money earned from the Quality Pool will go back to the care providers for the Central Oregon CCO, as well as create a pool of funds over which PacificSource and the Central Oregon Health Council have joint decision-making authority. The pool of funds will be used for pay-it-forward quality initiatives throughout Central Oregon, strategically aimed at improving the health of those within the CCO.
PacificSource’s Central Oregon CCO met 13.9 of the 18 quality measures and excelled in providing screenings for colorectal cancer, depression, childhood development, and alcohol or other substance misuse. The CCO was also the highest-ranking CCO for timeliness of prenatal care. Quality measures are used by the OHA to determine how successful CCOs have been at improving care, making quality care accessible, eliminating health disparities, and curbing the rising cost of healthcare for the populations they serve. Performance on these quality measures in the Central Oregon CCO earned 112%of their Quality Pool from the OHA. (Only seven of the 16 CCOs in the State received 100% or more of their Quality Pools.) The Central Oregon CCO has been eligible for their maximum payout each year since the Quality Pool payments began in 2013.
Together, PacificSource Community Solutions and the Central Oregon Health Council lead PacificSource’s Central Oregon CCO, which includes most healthcare providers in Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, and Northern Klamath Counties, and serves approximately 50,000 members of Oregon’s Medicaid program, known as the Oregon Health Plan (OHP). Medicaid, which is government-funded health insurance for low-income individuals and families, currently covers approximately one in four residents in the four counties.
“The Central Oregon Health Council and the Central Oregon CCO are pleased to be a part of a community governance structure that facilitates providers, payors, and members coming together to propose solutions to the important health care issues in our region,” said Tammy Baney, chair of the Central Oregon Health Council. “This work is furthering our organization’s mission of creating a healthier Central Oregon.”
“We are grateful for our strong provider partnerships in the region that promote high-quality care and have led us to engage in consistently high performance since the launch of the CCOs,” said Dan Stevens, Executive Vice President of Product Line Management at PacificSource. “We are uniquely positioned based off this solid performance to continue to serve our member needs in the future.”
The OHA has published a 2016 Performance Report that includes all of Oregon’s CCOs. It can be found online at Oregon.gov/oha.
The Central Oregon Health Council (COHC) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt public and private community governance entity. The COHC is dedicated to improving the health of the region and providing oversight of the Medicaid population and the Central Oregon CCO. COHC was officially created by Senate Bill 204 in 2011 to promote the health of the region’s residents and seeks to achieve the triple aim of improving health outcomes, increasing satisfaction with the health system, and reducing cost. The COHC’s mission is to serve as the governing Board for the CCO and to connect the CCO, patients, providers, Central Oregon, and resources. The COHC and Central Oregon’s CCO work together to transform healthcare in the region and to use integrated and coordinated healthcare systems to improve health; increase quality, reliability, availability, and continuity of care; and reduce the cost of care
As part of the PacificSource family of companies, PacificSource Community Solutions serves Medicaid members through its coordinated care organizations in Central Oregon and the Columbia Gorge. Founded in 1933, PacificSource employs 900 people, serves more than 300,000 individuals, and has 3,900 employer clients throughout the Northwest. For more information visit PacificSource.com.
