{"id":467699,"date":"2026-02-14T06:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/467699\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T06:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:01:11","slug":"bill-to-alter-oregon-health-plan-is-dead-sponsor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/467699\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to Alter Oregon Health Plan \u201cIs Dead,\u201d Sponsor Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key component of the Oregon Health Plan will survive in at least some form for now, after a bill to reshape how the state determines the plan\u2019s benefits died in committee.<\/p>\n

The original version of House Bill 4003 would have removed references in state law to the prioritized list<\/a>, a long-standing system in Oregon\u2019s Medicaid program for determining what benefits the state\u2019s largest health insurance plan covers.<\/p>\n

The Oregon Health Authority said the bill would help it comply with federal Medicaid requirements, given that the state\u2019s Medicaid waiver is set to expire at the end of this year. The bill\u2019s sponsor, Health Committee Chair Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland), had said a gap between federal rules and Oregon law regarding its Medicaid plan could create a liability for the state.<\/p>\n

Opponents, notably former Gov. John Kitzhaber<\/a>, said the bill wasn\u2019t necessary at all and would create confusion for Medicaid insurers at a time when the system is already under considerable strain. They said Oregon could work out its differences with the feds administratively, without making such a significant change to a long-standing feature of its law\u2014especially given the rushed timeline of the short legislative session. <\/p>\n

The Lund Report<\/a> first reported that the bill had stalled out. It was scheduled for a work session Thursday. But that morning, Nosse told WW the bill \u201cis dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nosse said the bill had lost support, as health committee members were moved by advocacy against the bill by Kitzhaber and coordinated care organizations. <\/p>\n

In a letter to health committee members dated Feb. 11, OHA director Sejal Hathi said if the bill did not pass, her agency would amend the Oregon Health Plan administratively to comply with the feds. <\/p>\n

The agency, her letter said, would \u201cmake the changes necessary, and only those changes, to the structure of the Prioritized List to be in compliance with federal law and regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, she added, OHA would \u201cseek to preserve the spirit and permissible portions of the Prioritized List as it operates today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, addressing those who attended the Thursday health committee meeting because HB 4003 was on the agenda, Nosse, noting that the bill had been scuttled, spoke of OHA plans for a rulemaking process and stakeholder engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then if there are statute changes we need to make,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019ll think about doing that in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.<\/p>\n

Support WW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key component of the Oregon Health Plan will survive in at least some form for now, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-467699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}