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City Club of Eugene: Mergers and Medicine: How Consolidation in Health Care Affects Oregonians

The City Club of Eugene meets Fridays at the First United Methodist Church in Eugene and airs Monday nights at 7 on KLCC.
Rachael McDonald
/
KLCC
The City Club of Eugene meets Fridays at the First United Methodist Church in Eugene and airs Monday nights at 7 on KLCC.

Program Date: Jul 23, 2022
Air Date: Jul 25, 2022

From The City Club of Eugene:

Topic:

As shown in the chart below,in recent years, consolidation in the health care sector has brought more doctors and hospitals into vertically-integrated health care systems.

City Club of Eugene

Some, including theOregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS), assert that consolidation is necessary to preserve access to high quality care, particularly in rural areas that lack significant volume of patients. Others, including theFederal Trade Commission, have alleged that consolidation can lead to increased prices and decreased access to care for Americans.

In 2021 Oregon enacted a law increasing oversight of hospital mergers and acquisitions in the state. Under House Bill 2362, which establishes the Oregon Health Care Market Oversight program, the Oregon Health Authority is required to review any merger, acquisition, or affiliation of healthcare organizations when one entity has at least $25 million in revenue and another entity has at least $10 million in revenue. According to the bill, regulators may reject a deal if the organizations cannot prove that the transaction will reduce patient costs, boost access to services in medically underserved areas, or improve health outcomes.

In this program, three experts offer a closer look at mergers in the medical arena and their potential impact on Oregonians.

Speakers:

Gary Bruce is a health care lawyer for the firm of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. Based in Bend, Oregon, Gary provides advice and counsel to health systems, hospitals, and other healthcare providers on various regulatory and governance matters. Before entering private practice in 2019, Gary served as Vice President and General Counsel for St. Charles Health System, Inc. That role involved working with health system leadership, privileged medical staff members, and frontline caregivers on matters ranging from corporate mergers, to privacy breaches, to professional liability actions. He earned a BA at Oregon State University, a JD at Washington and Lee University, and an MBA at the University of Oregon.

Kraig Delana is an assistant professor in the Operations and Business Analytics Department at the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business. His research focuses on the analysis of innovations in healthcare operations where impact is determined by multiple decision makers. Currently, his research examines the role of physician integration under alternative payment models. Prior to teaching at the Lundquist College, he worked at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Duke University Health System. He earned a BS in industrial engineering from Kettering University, an MS in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in management science and operations from the London Business School.

Zachary Goldman (he/him) is the Health Care Cost Economist for the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). He works on the Health Care Market Oversight program and Oregon’s Sustainable Health Care Cost Growth Target program. He was previously OHA’s Economic Policy Advisor for five years and focused on issues at the intersection of health care and economics: cost trends, market dynamics, alternative payment methodologies/value-based payments, and more. Prior to joining OHA, he was a Senior Policy Specialist at Covered California and helped launch the state-based health insurance marketplace during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He also spent six years with a Federally Qualified Health Center in Portland, OR managing projects. He has a BA from Brandeis University and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

About the City Club of Eugene:

The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.

Video and Broadcast

This program will be live streamed, and the videotape will be made available on the City Club of Eugene’s Facebook page and You Tube Channel, in addition to our website. It will be broadcast on Monday, July 25, 2022 at 7:00 pm, on KLCC 89.7 FM.

Contact: For more information, contact Silver A. Mogart, City Club of Eugene, Executive Director, (541) 485-7433, administrator@cityclubofeugene.org

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