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One of Oregon’s largest health insurance plans announced in recent days it might be going up for sale but, in the meantime, it still has quite a bit of cleaning up to do.
In a recent letter, state officials told the Providence Health Plan that the insurer had fallen out of compliance with a contract to manage health insurance for tens of thousands of public employees and their families.
These customers, who are insured through the Public Employees’ Benefit Board, or PEBB, are a major subset of Oregon Providence members who have reported maddening, confusing and at times scary bureaucratic hangups with their health care after the Providence Health Plan on Jan. 1 outsourced administrative work on some of its health insurance plans to a Silicon Valley firm called Collective Health (“Technical Hiccups,” WW, March 11).
In an email, a Collective Health spokesperson acknowledged the transition was “initially more challenging than expected” but said the company continues to improve the quality of its services, and that PEBB remains a valued client. But some remain unsatisfied.
At a recent meeting, after a rundown of some of the health care dramas documented in public comments—one man said Collective Health’s bureaucracy threatened to delay for weeks chemotherapy for his terminal cancer—PEBB director Ali Hassoun said he wanted to talk about accountability. T
he benefits board, Hassoun said, had filed notice with Providence that the insurer was out of compliance; he said board staff were continuing to work with Providence to resolve the matter, and that he would have updates soon.
Notably, the same day as that meeting, Providence informed PEBB it would drop plans to bid for a new contract with the board in 2027, an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson tells WW.
Two days later, on March 19, Providence announced it might sell its whole health insurance business altogether.
