Transformation for Oregon’s health care delivery system is on the fast track. Under bipartisan legislation (HB 3650) passed earlier this year, local Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) will be responsible for administering the delivery of physical, mental, addictions, oral and other health care to the more than 600,000 child and adult Oregonians served by the Oregon Health Plan. These organizations will be given flexibility and incentives for care that keeps people healthier, including health equity, preventive services and team-based care for chronic illnesses. They will include a network of providers that will provide comprehensive care in a community-defined “Delivery System Network.

This month through mid-January, the Oregon Health Policy Board will consider a draft CCO Business Plan that incorporates public comment about what regional CCOs should look like and who they should include in their Delivery System Networks. NOW is the time for SBHCs to position themselves as essential health providers under the CCO model.

The Network strongly encourages providers, student-patients, and patients’ parents from your SBHC system to contact the Oregon Health Policy Board (OHPB) at [email protected]; and advocate that CCOs recognize SBHCs as critical providers in the forthcoming Delivery System Networks (DSN).

There are three opportunities for SBHC advocates to issue recommendations:

1. December 13, 2011, through testimony or written comment at the next OHPB meeting in Portland; 2. December 19, 2011 through January 3, 2012, during Public Comment Period on the Draft CCO Business Plan; and 3. January 10 through January 18, 2012, the final Public Comment Period on the Draft CCO Business Plan.

Talking points SBHC advocates can present include:

 SBHCs are critical parts of the safety net that CCOs will oversee. Often SBHCs serve as the sole provider for students who otherwise would not receive health care, who are on the Oregon Health Plan, or who are uninsured.

 SBHCs improve Oregon’s Triple Aim outcomes.

 SBHCs address health inequities (a focus of the Oregon Action Plan for Health) by providing no- to low-cost services targeting a unique population; care in underserved parts of the State; child- and adolescent-specific care; and services to minority ethnic and racial populations.  SBHCs focus on prevention as well as intervention as evidenced by the three Key Performance Measures that SBHCs track for patients who have had 3 or more visits during the current school year: comprehensive physical exam; health assessment; and a calculation of body mass index (BMI).

 SBHCs encourage “patient engagement, activation and accountability for their own health,” an operational criterion for CCOs, such as offering child and adolescent-centered care and hosting Youth Advisory Councils.

 Another CCO criterion is that “Services and supports are geographically located as close to where members reside as possible and are, if available, offered in non-traditional settings that are accessible to families, diverse communities and underserved populations.” Likewise, SBHCs: o Are located in school, where the kids are. o Provide services that are primarily defined by the community and certified by the State. o Offer health care access to a school’s entire student population. o See students who otherwise would not receive health care o Provide services regardless of a student’s ability to pay.

 CCOs will be required to develop a network of providers who emphasize prevention, healthy lifestyle choices, evidence-based practices, shared decision-making and communication. SBHCs: o Offer prevention messages at every patient visit; and encourage students to involve their parents in health care decisions, often inviting the student to call their parent directly from the clinic. o Include providers of specialty care. SBHC providers are adolescent or pediatric health specialists. o Are selected according to universal application and credentialing procedures. SBHC providers are licensed Physicians, Nurse Practitioners or Physicians’ Assistants, Registered Nurses and Qualified Mental Health Professionals who work at least 20 hours/week in a SBHC.

 SBHCs directly support Oregon’s simultaneous education reform by assuring onsite access to health services in school to reduce health-related barriers to learning.

For more information and to locate tools to help you assess your SBHC’s readiness to be included in your community’s health care Delivery System Network, please contact the Network at (503) 813-6400.