Last year, thousands of Eugene-area patients were dropped by Oregon Medical Group, which is owned by a subsidiary of insurance company UnitedHealthcare.
A bill sponsored by Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley in the Senate and Rep. Val Hoyle in the House, would seek to end the trend of insurance companies buying, or owning medical clinics.
"When you have a for-profit insurance company that owns a medical clinic, their whole goal is to dump high-cost patients out,” Merkley told KLCC. “They dumped thousands of people out after they purchased Oregon Medical Group in Eugene and that is a terrible way to run a healthcare system."
UnitedHealthcare-owned Optum, employs roughly 10% of the physician workforce. The company also owns the payment system many healthcare providers use – which was a victim of a massive cyber attack last year. Subsidiary Optum purchased Oregon Medical Group in 2020 and the Corvallis Clinic last year.
In the years after Oregon Medical Group was purchased – dozens of physicians left, leaving many without a primary care provider.
Merkley says his goal is to return Oregon Medical Group and the Corvallis Clinic to local, doctor or non-profit ownership. He says insurance-owned healthcare is a conflict of interest.
“We are farming out our healthcare to a for-profit entity that is determined to squeeze every dollar out of the system,” Merkley said.
He says he also believes his bill – which would bar insurance companies that own clinics from getting federal Medicare Advantage contracts and require insurers to divest their current ownership stakes in medical practices – would complement Oregon’s efforts to limit corporate ownership of healthcare.
The bill is also sponsored by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, and lawmakers from New York and Massachusetts.
