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OREGON LEGISLATURE Bill would press Lane County doctors to take Medicaid patients Comment By Saul Hubbard Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Saul Hubbard Eugene Register-Guard Posted May. 19, 2015 at 3:37 PM By Saul Hubbard Eugene Register-Guard Posted May. 19, 2015 at 3:37 PM » Social News SALEM — Lane County-area legislators are trying to put the pressure on Lane County doctors to take on more low-income Oregon Health Plan-insured patients. The move is aimed at addressing a problem created by the rapid expansion of the rolls of OHP — the state's Medicaid system — under the federal Affordable Care Act. In Lane County, tens of thousands of low-income residents have signed up for state-funded OHP insurance, but many doctors refuse to take them on as patients because they are too busy with their existing private-insurance patients, or because OHP payment rates to doctors are too low. Local legislators are pushing a bill to help Trillium Community Health Plan, the private, for-profit organization that runs OHP in Lane County, deal with the shortage of primary-care doctors willing to treat OHP clients. Under House Bill 3300, which would apply exclusively in Lane County, primary care doctors would be allowed to serve public employees and teachers on state-sponsored health insurance plans only if at least 15 percent of the doctor's total patient caseload were patients insured by OHP. Advocates say the new requirement would provide an incentive for more local doctors to open their doors to OHP patients — on whom doctors receive relatively low reimbursement rates — because they wouldn't want to lose their ability to treat the large local pool of public employees, on whom private insurance companies pay much higher rates. Lane County's OHP population has mushroomed to almost 96,000 from 57,000 since the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act, and Trillium has struggled to find enough primary care doctors to treat all those patients. Around 13,000 of those residents currently don't have access to primary care doctor. The proposed fix, HB 3300, would have originally applied statewide, even though most other Oregon counties haven't faced such significant doctor shortages for OHP patients. The proposal received little attention this session, however, and appeared set to die in mid-April, despite Trillium lobbying for the change and support from PeaceHealth, which owns and operates four hospitals in Lane County. But it's now been revived in the House Rules Committee, which is led by House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, a Eugene Democrat. The rules committee approved the bill with little discussion on a 6-3 vote Monday, sending it to a joint House-Senate budgetary committee. Hoyle said the policy makes more sense as a Lane-County-only "pilot project" because of the county's "critical shortage of primary care doctors." Under the amended bill, the new requirement would expire in 2020 unless the Legislature renewed it after reviewing its impact. Asked if the bill has enough support to become law this session, Hoyle said: "It's worth consideration." By Saul Hubbard Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Saul Hubbard Eugene Register-Guard Posted May. 19, 2015 at 3:37 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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