Nancy Nathanson explains the EEP PeaceHealth lawsuit
Presenter: A new Oregon law seeks to ensure that doctors make the decisions about your health care, not insurance companies and private equity firms. The new law is being tested in a case involving PeaceHealth and Eugene Emergency Physicians. To explain, here’s Rep. Nancy Nathanson:
Rep. Nancy Nathanson: Hi, I’m Nancy Nathanson, representative in the Oregon State Legislature. Last week’s announcement of new discussions between PeaceHealth and Eugene Emergency Physicians EEP was great news for patients and physicians.
Oregon leads the nation now in the strongest state law pushing back against the corporate takeover of health care, and it’s our community showing that it doesn’t have to be inevitable.
A new contract between Peace Health and EEP stops the potential disruption for patients as well as for the doctors and their families. I’m hopeful that continued productive discussions will prioritize improving patient experience, wait times, and quality of care at the emergency department.
Even if the contract is completed, challenges will still persist with emergency medical services in Lane County, especially at RiverBend where we have patients waiting hours to be seen in an overcrowded emergency department.
It’s important to recognize that this is a tentative resolution. PeaceHealth and EEP have until May 20 to reach an agreement, and if they can’t, the case will move forward in the court.
Oregon’s law is working. Still, we should shore it up with additional clarifications and leave no room for teams of corporate attorneys and administrators to look for loopholes or workarounds.
I’d like to reflect on the situation a little bit now. In 2012, about one-quarter of physicians were employed by hospitals or other corporate entities—a quarter. Now it’s more than three-quarters employed by hospitals or other corporate entities.
Since 2019, more than 44,000 U.S. medical practices were purchased by corporations such as health insurers, pharmacy chains, private equity firms, and hospital health systems.
Consolidation involving private equity firms can drive up prices for private insurance and researchers explain how corporate consolidation is one of the main drivers of increased health care costs across the United States. Private equity ownership is associated with declines in quality of care in some settings, as well as increased turnover of physicians.
These concerns played out here following the acquisition of Oregon Medical Group, OMG, in Eugene. People wrote on social media about losing their doctors, self-rationing prescription medication because they didn’t have a way to get a refill, and children missed immunizations.
Optum bought up the Corvallis clinic too, and on an emergency approval from the Oregon Health Authority. We need to change that law too, because clearly we need real review and not rubber-stamping so-called ’emergencies.’
Health care shouldn’t be treated like a commodity, like a computer, a box of cereal, or a car. Oregon’s landmark legislation to reign in the corporate practice of medicine has at its heart the principle that health care professionals should be making decisions about patient’s health, not lawyers and accountants, and certainly not out-of-state investors or AI formulas.
The rest of the country is watching to see how our new law plays out. I’m proud of Oregon taking a stand. Money spent on extra layers of management and shareholder profits should be spent directly on health care. That’s what can happen here—now—with a new contract between the hospital and the local physicians.
Let’s keep it local and keep it about health care.
Presenter: Nancy Nathanson represents the voters of North Eugene in state House District 13. Her email is Rep.NancyNathanson@oregonlegislature.gov.
