A lawsuit filed by the father of slain security guard Bobby Smallwood against Legacy Health is headed for a crucial hearing in Multnomah Circuit Court over whether workers' comp law blocks the family's claims.

A small team within the Department of Consumer and Business Services helps people with a variety of health care coverage issues, fielding thousands of complaints filed against insurers each year. It was a life-changer for Cindy Collins and her daughter Tia. www.thelundreport.org/content/litt...

The Oregon Department of Justice has charged a counseling service in the Portland area with Medicaid fraud in connection with hundreds of thousands of dollars of claims.

Influential legislators, including Reps. Rob Nosse, Ed Diehl, Hai Pham and Sen. Lisa Reynolds, have thrown their weight behind calls to cut providers’ administrative burden in light of slashed funding for providers who take care of lower-income Oregonians.

Dr. Susan Huang, currently a Providence physician executive, has been tapped to become the next president and CEO of Legacy Health, filling the position held on an interim basis for nearly two years.

Opioid deaths across Oregon are in decline for the second year in a row, according to federal health projections, dropping nearly 20% in the 12 months ending in August 2025 compared to the same time a year ago, and more than 30 percent down from the state’s peak in May 2024.

Collateral damages: Legacy Health and the insurer Regence failed to reach an agreement over reimbursement rates this week and terminated their contract, pushing nearly 30,000 patients out of the Portland-based health system's network.

Researchers at @ohsunews.bsky.social say their work showed that people who had lost their coverage were more likely to have worsening blood sugar control and other complications, requiring more intensive medications to curb the effects.

State law requires nonprofit hospitals and health systems to spend a minimum amount on “community benefit” activities, most of which goes to filling gaps in Medicaid reimbursements for lower-income Oregonians. But only 79% met their state required minimum in 2024, a drop from more than 97% in 2023.

A federal judge has blocked the release of information requested under the state's public records law, including an analysis of the state health authority’s spending of public funds on community behavioral health services.

Mental health advocates have asked a federal judge to prevent counties from sending people accused of lower-level crimes to the state’s psychiatric institution. The Oregon District Attorneys Association wants Gov. Tina Kotek to stop that from happening.

A new lawsuit accuses the owner of Mall 205 of allowing thousands of gallons of sewage to pool on the property next to Adventist Health Portland, a 302-bed hospital, making staff sick and keeping patients from entering the property.

A year of missed warnings: A newly obtained federal report provides undisclosed details of how Asante Health employees saw troubling behavior by a Medford nurse who cared for dozens of patients prescribed fentanyl. It took 18 months for hospital leaders to connect the situation to rising infections.

For sale: Providence Health Plans, one of Oregon's largest insurers, is looking for a buyer. The company’s announcement, which included few details, follows months of downsizing for its owner, Providence Health & Services.

Multnomah County officials have launched a review of its emergency response system — including its troubled relationship with its ambulance provider, American Medical Response — with considerations from an outside consultant. The review comes as AMR is expected to request an increase in its rates.

New research reveals just how critical the shortage of primary care providers is in Portland. And when access is limited, conditions go unmanaged, diagnoses are delayed, and emergency departments become a default solution, says Dr. Jane Zhu, OHSU primary care doctor and researcher.

Following its deal with @peacehealth.bsky.social PeaceHealth, an Atlanta-based firm set up a company in Oregon to try to comply with a new state law governing the practice of medicine, but state lawmakers say it’s precisely the sort of arrangement they were trying to stop.

Oregon Senators on Thursday said PeaceHealth's plan to turn over emergency room services to an outside staffing and management firm was deeply concerning, and they are looking into whether it violates state law. But leaders of the Atlanta-based firm and PeaceHealth defend the deal.

How much do drugmakers' patient-assistance programs actually help patients? Oregon lawmakers wanted to find out, but a measure to press drugmakers to report on their programs ran into opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

Charlie Health, a Montana-based virtual mental health services company, has been waging a campaign to keep operating in Oregon. State lawmakers are pushing back, seeking to recoup public funds the firm has received.

Oregon joins more than a dozen other states in a lawsuit against Health Secretary RFK Jr. and the head of the CDC, claiming they did not follow well-established scientific evidence or the law last year when they rolled back vaccine recommendations.

The state's nonprofit charity care law helps lower-income Oregonians pay for needed health care. Now, a proposed change to the law is pitting hospitals, which say it's needed to curb rising costs, against patient advocates, who warn it could burden thousands of people with medical debt.

An Oregon bill that would put limits on insurers' audits of mental health care providers is moving forward in the state legislature. The bill follows complaints by providers that under current rules they can be held accountable for repaying thousands of dollars from years-old paperwork errors.

The Oregon State Hospital, the state's largest psychiatric institution, is struggling with high rates of staff absenteeism, sparking not just financial issues, but safety concerns as well, and posing a challenge to efforts to create a culture of safety for staff and patients.

After several highly publicized cases of teens taking their own lives after confiding in AI chatbots, the Oregon State Legislature is considering a bill by @senlisareynolds.bsky.social that addresses concerns about how AI is influencing children and potentially exacerbating mental health issues.

A self-styled reform slate that has called for a more aggressive approach appears to have won the majority of leadership positions at The Oregon Nurses Association in its first widely contested board election in recent memory. The results won’t be certified before Friday.

Lake Oswego-based Dext Capital has become a financial juggernaut while serving as a primary source of loans for aesthetic medicine equipment, often bought by providers fleeing the hassles of health care. The lender's growth has come with complaints and criticisms.

State officials have launched a review of the plan by Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System to absorb Samaritan Health. The proposed transaction would pump money into the Corvallis-based hospital system while moving control and ultimate decision-making authority out of state.

A physician assistant and Oregon Health & Science University educator is suing Kaiser for damages after he says two state medical boards cleared him of a bogus allegation regarding Ozempic prescriptions that led to his termination.

About 25,000 patients use hospice services every year in Oregon. Now, state lawmakers are considering a bill aimed at protecting people at the end of their lives from fraudulent hospice companies that have stolen identities and provided few services in other states.

House Bill 4127, proposed by Oregon House majority leader Rep. Ben Bowman, would backfill funds to Planned Parenthood in Oregon that were lost due to a federal funding ban. But at a time of state budget cuts, its cost could be a hurdle. @ppfa.org

The state’s prioritized list, the controversial rationing program for the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan, is proving hard to kill, with new federal guidance complicating state officials’ latest attempt to make it go away.

Providence, Oregon's largest hospital provider, is considering repurposing or selling off hospitals across its seven-state footprint, but a spokesperson with the company says that for now, there are no such plans underway in Oregon.

Oregon lawmakers are pitching multiple health care-related bills in a session clouded by a big budget hole. The proposals include changing how coverage for low-income residents is managed, giving some providers more authority, shoring up Planned Parenthood, and cracking down on AI chatbots.

Gov. Tina Kotek calls the pressure campaign around Montana-based Charlie Health, a for-profit firm trying to keep operating in Oregon, "misleading." It comes at a time when mental health services are in turmoil, but critics say their services need more oversight. The company says it's ready to sue.

Hospital-acquired infections are a leading cause of death — some 99,000 people die a year in the U.S. — and they’re preventable. Oregon hospitals, as a whole, failed to meet national standards in 2024, infecting nearly 1,000 people.

Charlie Health takes its cause to the public as it tries to preserve access to Oregon Medicaid payments while providing mental health services using providers not licensed in Oregon. Others say the state is right to stress oversight and the use of providers licensed in Oregon to ensure quality care.

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is facing a revolt after removing Dr. Jennifer DeVoe, a national expert on the value of primary care, from her post. @ohsunews.bsky.social @oregonpca.bsky.social

The rise of urgent care: The doubling of urgent care clinics in the past 10 years worries some health experts, who say the trend masks the state’s lack of support for family medicine docs and general practitioners. The Lund Report's @lynneterry.bsky.social digs into the impact this shift is having.

Asante has left Ashland residents in the dark about why it plans to downgrade Asante Ashland Community Hospital from a general hospital to a reduced-services “satellite” of Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, and they deserve better, said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland.

Only two days remain for people to sign up for health insurance through the ACA marketplace. With Congress debating cuts to consumers’ premiums, state officials urge Oregonians to enroll now to be eligible, while cautioning against fake websites offering false promises.

A former longtime nurse at Asante’s Medford hospital is suing the health care system, claiming it discriminated and retaliated against him for filing complaints over alleged health care violations and workers’ compensation claims.

Despite a new flu variant boosting national numbers, things in Oregon are better than last year. Officials say they can’t predict whether that will continue, and hospitalizations have climbed. www.thelundreport.org/content/new-...

Medical debt, civil commitment, ambulance costs, menopause, breast reconstruction and medical visits on vacation are all part of a slate of new laws taking effect in Oregon tomorrow. Read the rundown in The Lund Report by Lynne Terry.

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With a $197 million grant award for rural health, Oregon fares well in the first year of a federal program intended to fend off criticisms of Congressional health care cuts.

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Letter to the editor: Single-payer advocates Tom Sincic and Valdez Bravo say that things are mostly going according to plan at the Universal Health Plan Governance Board, though the group should be hewing closer to its statutory mission.