EDITORIAL: Fire response showed wisdom of coordinated care
Dec. 11—Oregon government hasn't always performed as well as it could when it comes to delivering services to state residents who need them. But one shining exception is the two local Coordinated Care Organizations and how they stepped up to help victims of the Almeda Fire in 2020.
AllCare Health and Jackson Care Connect manage Oregon Health Plan benefits for about 80,000 Jackson County residents. OHP is the system Oregon set up to deliver federal Medicaid insurance benefits to low-income Oregonians. Part of that system is a network of Coordinated Care Organizations, or CCOs, which manage physical, mental and dental health benefits and work with social services and other support to help patients improve their overall health while controlling health care costs.
That unique approach meant the two CCOs were ideally positioned to respond when the Almeda Fire swept through Phoenix and Talent, destroying the homes of thousands of people and leaving them without essential supplies.
After the fire, AllCare and Jackson Care Connect jumped into action, using mapping technology to identify clients who lived in the fire zones and were likely to have lost their homes. The CCOs authorized early prescription refills to replace vital medications that had been destroyed, as well as medical equipment such as wheelchairs, glucose monitors and blood pressure cuffs.
Working with their partner organizations, they provided rides, paid for hospital stays and collected dental supplies from dentists and delivered them to shelters.
This comprehensive approach to meeting all human needs, not just medical care, is getting national attention thanks to an article by Dr. Richard Williams, executive vice president of AllCare Health. The article, "Wildfire Response and Recovery: The Importance of Coordinated Care and Social Support," appears in Catalyst, a journal produced by the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine.
It's no secret that people's physical health is affected by many factors beyond disease. Mental stability, dental care, secure housing, healthy food and reliable transportation all play a role. Addressing all those needs at the same time, as the CCO model strives to do, means better health outcomes for individuals and lower costs to the taxpayers who fund the system.
The Almeda Fire was a massive tragedy for many, but the coordinated response of these local organizations helped ease the burden for thousands of fire survivors who are Oregon Health Plan patients. That's government at its best.
