The Health Care Market Oversight (HCMO) program at Oregon Health Authority (OHA) today completed a preliminary review of Oregon Health and Science University’s (OHSU) proposed acquisition of Legacy Health System and will now move to comprehensive review. The preliminary review report, along with additional documents related to the transaction, can be found here.
On Oct. 4, OHA received written notice of the proposed transaction (known as a “notice of material change transaction”) from OHSU and Legacy that describes plans for the entities to combine. OHSU is a public university health system that owns or is affiliated with three hospitals in the Portland metro area, and owns multiple medical clinics, research centers and university education programs that serve patients throughout Oregon. Legacy Health System is a nonprofit health system that owns and operates six hospitals in the Portland and Vancouver metro areas, and the mid-Willamette valley. Legacy also owns and operates 70 outpatient clinics including primary care, urgent care and specialty care clinics throughout the same regions.
HCMO was created by the Oregon legislature to review business deals involving health care entities to promote transparency, monitor the effects of health care consolidation on the public, and ensure that health care transactions in Oregon support statewide goals related to health equity, lower costs, increased access, and better quality of care.
During the preliminary phase, HCMO conducts a review of the proposed transaction and can decide to approve, approve with conditions, or to conduct a more comprehensive review. OHA’s preliminary analysis focused on the scale and scope of OHSU and Legacy’s operations and services in Oregon, as well as how the transaction could affect consolidation and competition in Oregon’s health care markets, access to services, health care costs, health equity and quality of care. Given the size and potential effects of the proposed transaction, HCMO made the decision to move forward with a comprehensive review.
During the comprehensive review, OHA will collect additional information about the transaction, encourage public comment, and examine the potential impacts on cost, quality, access, and equity for people in Oregon. The comprehensive review will be completed within 180 days, unless extended in accordance with the law.
OHA plans to convene a community review board for the comprehensive review of the proposed OHSU-Legacy transaction. Community review boards provide input about transactions and make a recommendation to OHA about whether the transaction should be approved. Board members can include people who live and work in affected communities, consumer advocates, health care experts and health care providers.
People interested in participating in the community review board for this transaction can email hcmo.info@oha.oregon.gov. OHA staff will provide more information about the timeline, member requirement and application process.
OHA will accept and post public comments throughout the review period. Public input is crucial to help OHA understand potential impacts on the cost and quality of health care, access to services and health equity. Public comment can be provided through one of the following ways:
- Email hcmo.info@oha.oregon.gov.
- Leave a voicemail at 503-945-6161.
- Fill out the public comment form.
The Oregon Legislature established HCMO in 2021, and HCMO began reviewing proposed transactions in 2022. Oregon is one of 12 states that has a program to review health-related mergers and study health care consolidation. Information about the program can be found on the HCMO web page. Subscribe to receive program updates here.
Source: Oregon Health Authority