Your Insurance Solution

Healthcare is changing.  Changing radically and driven by powerful forces of cost, technology and consumer empowerment.

Here's what you can look for:

1.  The electronic medical record.  All your health records will soon be stored electronically.  The don't live in a file at the doctor's office, radiologist or hospital anymore.  This "instantly accessible" tool will be a significant advance for care anywhere YOU may be.  Further, the emergence of the EMR will help drive superior care and less medical errors as computers can flag potential problems.

2.  The clinical cloud.  It's no longer only your music that will be downloadable.  But soon, your health record will be digital and follow you.  You CAT scan and ECG are a click away for any necessary viewing.

3. Retail Medicine.  Yep, it's already there.  But the medi-clinics on the corner will be replaced by chain-style medical offices that will appear in your local mall or big box store.  Even retail pharmacies will expand their service to include some medical care.

4. Smart phone monitoring.  Your smart phone will monitor your ECG, blood sugar, sleep patterns (to name a few) and alert you and your doctor when there's a problem.  It will track and record these trends and offer valuable diagnostic information.

5.  Expert engagement at a distance.  Distance is no longer an issue.  With video engagement and the medical cloud at hand, difficult (and even simple) cases can be evaluated by experts around the world.  Even surgical proceedures by physicians thousands of miles away--with the help of robotic.

6.  Implantable devices.  Pain, depression, and common conditions that are generally treated with pills will be succesfully managed with implantable devices that use both drugs and electric current to stimulate and normalize conditions with less toxicity and superior long-term managment.

7. On-line office visits.  At-home diagnostic tools and data transfer to a physician's office will reduce the need for an actual office visit.  Video conferencing and these diagnostic tools will provide an accurate assesment, care and risk-management.

8.  The patient-doctor.  The empowered patient will learn to make informed decisions based upon new at-home tools and techniques.  We will measure our own blood chemistries and take and transmit our ECG's.  Our actions, guided by experts will allow us to be engaged and informed.

9.  Value driven intervention.  Cost will emerge as a key factor in care.  And value will be an important element.  Patients will be rewarded for seeking cost-effective care and value seekers "shop around" procedures like CAT scans on the basis of technology and cost.  Long gone will be the day of having a complex test without knowing or caring about the price.

10. The vanishing private practice.  The economics of medicine are squeezing the solo practitioner.    Seeing "your" doctor at Walmart may be more likely than that small practice in your home town.

We believe every kid in Oregon should be a healthy kid and our goal is to make sure they have health coverage.

Depending on family income, children may be eligible for free or low-cost health coverage for doctor visits, dental care, vision, medicines and more through the Healthy Kids program.

Our site has information about Healthy Kids, including eligibility, services covered, and how to apply. There's also a place to find out how to help us spread the word and/or to partner with us to help families apply.

1. Focus on patient safety

Hospitals will dedicate themselves to preventing medical errors and improving patient safety at all levels of the organization. Wireless will be an enabler - helping to merge and deliver information to avoid errors.

Electronic medical records will become a reality. Transportable "e-records" will help to support higher quality care, while protecting patient privacy and cutting costs. Cell phones will become the "key" and only communication device we will need.

As healthcare costs continue to increase, driven by medical inflation and volume growth, policymakers will consider limits on reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals as well as technologies to reduce costs in the long term. Administrators will again be asked to do "more with less."

Incentives to reward physicians and hospitals for quality care and improved outcomes will take hold. Modeled after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' voluntary quality-indicator reporting system, similar "pay for performance" incentives will help improve the quality of patient care.

As information technology is recognized as a vital part of hospital operations, consuming a higher percentage of the organization's budget, IT management will become an integral part of the clinical management process and member of the management team.

Insurers will continue to consolidate creating additional leverage in contract negotiations. Similar to company pension plans, our health insurance will become defined contribution not defined benefit. 401K-style health plans arrive.

Following California's legislation that sets mandatory staffing levels in reaction to nursing shortages, more states will consider similar legislation, prompting a deep fissure within the industry over whether such laws are necessary or harmful to staff and patients. The laws themselves will cause more shortages.

As demand outpaces supply, the industry will increase compensation and develop pro-active recruitment programs to help promote healthcare careers at higher education institutions.

The aging "baby boom" generation presents a major public policy concern for long-term care due to its size and anticipated use of resources, as well as boomers' "high maintenance" reputation compared to their predecessors.

The large uninsured and underinsured population will continue to present the system with a grave dilemma. Due to economic pressures the many working poor and young workers in their 20s will choose to be uninsured