➡️ Who they are:

• Optum Oregon MOS is owned by UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest health care corporation in the US. UnitedHealth has a long history of driving up costs in the name of profit and has been the subject of a lot of controversy, nationwide, over the last decade.

• The Corvallis Clinic is a physician owned and operated provider who operates 11 clinics serving Albany, Corvallis, Lebanon, Lincoln City, Newport, and Philomath. They provide primary care, behavioral health, occupational medicine, audiology, optometry, radiology, laboratory services, telemedicine, physical therapy, an ambulatory surgery center, and more.

➡️ What Optum (owned by mega-corporation UnitedHealth) wants to do:

UnitedHealth, under the name Optum Oregon MSO, is attempting to take over The Corvallis Clinic.
The Oregon Health Authority can approve or deny the takeover, or conduct a comprehensive review.

➡️ What is HCMO?

The Health Care Market Oversight program is a newer law designed to provide oversight and community involvement in certain health care market transactions, like mergers, acquisitions and closures.

HCMO was established by HB 2362, which the Oregon Legislature passed in 2021. This mandate requires the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to review and approve proposed material change transactions between health care entities,

The Health Care Market Oversight (HCMO) program exists to make sure that health care entity transactions support:

• Health equity

• Lower costs for consumers and payers,

• Increased access, and

• Better patient care

HCMO has the authority to deny or approve these requests outright. They also have the power to provide additional opportunities for feedback and community decision making through a comprehensive review process, including a Community Review Board. If a comprehensive review were done in this case, such a board would be composed of Mid-Valley residents to provide guidance and testimony on this proposed merger. A community Review Board would also lend much needed transparency to this proposal.

➡️ What is a Comprehensive Review and a Community Review Board?

HCMO has the authority to convene a Community Review Board, in support of HCMO’s goal to “Implement a process that is transparent, robust and informed by the public, including the local community, through meaningful engagement.” (OAR 409-070-0000)

The law (ORS 415.500 et seq) requires HCMO to conduct a comprehensive review before it can approve a transaction that has potential to have a negative impact on access to affordable health care in Oregon (ORS 415.501(7)(a)). HCMO may convene a Community Review Board if certain criteria are met, including:

• The potential loss or change in access to essential services.

• The potential to impact a large number of residents in this state.

• A significant change in the market share of an entity involved in the transaction.

There can be no doubt that the Optum/UnitedHealth takeover has potential to negatively impact access to affordable care so that it requires a comprehensive review (or outright denial), and that the criteria for convening a Community Review Board are met.

➡️ Why it matters

The Corvallis Clinic injects more than $41 million into the economy every year. Local residents deserve to have a say in the future of their health care in their community.

Sign the petition and then send an email to HCMO today and urge them to convene a Community Review Board NOW.

We believe that patients are the most important element of a health care clinic or facility. Patients should have a voice in what happens in their community on issues that affect their health.

History tells us that costs will rise in the Mid Valley if this proposal is approved. Multiple research studies have proven this. The publicly traded for profit model adds a minimum of 8-10% profit margin and a 10-20% marketing budget. It relies on a variety of accounting and other financial strategies to impress investors.

More about Optum and UnitedHealth:

• Optum/UnitedHealth controls close to 100,000 clinicians across the United States.

• They are the largest health insurance company in America, and the largest Fortune 500 company in the health care sector.

• Their profit focused model views patients as a revenue source. It accomplishes this primarily by selecting healthy patients via targeted advertising, leveraging other health providers in the community to discount prices and outsourcing a variety of services to cheaper labor markets. New technologies are emphasized but often they are best used to maximize reimbursement through a variety of clever billing schemes. United Health is currently being scrutinized by the Federal government for these strategies in its Medicare Advantage plans.

Of most concern in Oregon is the impact on health equity, quality and cost this for profit strategy would have. Sadly the key to health insurance success remains selection---selection of healthy patients and healthy communities. Research suggests that the major reason for success in for profit health care is to avoid sicker patients and communities and there are a variety of strategies using sophisticated data approaches to do so. Quality looks great because the sicker folks are taken care of somewhere else.

Mid Valley patients and community members deserve a chance to understand and process what is going on in their community and to their health care.