Oregon is changing the way it treats its sickest people. Some of the more controversial changes came up at a public meeting Monday.
As part of the federal health care overhaul, the state is setting up new Coordinated Care Organizations, or CCOs.
The hope is that CCOs will save money and get better results by treating patients more holistically. But to make sure, the state wants to grade CCOs.
Kaiser Permanente doctor, Tom Syltebo says that can be done by looking at things like the body mass index, or BMI, of their patients.
"One measure maybe, and we haven't decided this, maybe making sure we understand what all the members of a CCO, what their BMI is and then see what happens to that over time."
He says if a Coordinated Care Organization can show its patients are losing weight, then it can show they're generally becoming healthier.
Other benchmarks might include: a reduced number of patients who smoke; and fewer patients ending-up in the ER instead of a doctor's office.
Our story on "coordinated care organizations" is one of a series of reports by Kristian Foden-Vencil on health care produced as part of a special project by NPR, its member stations and Kaiser Health News.
Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health policy and politics. It is an editorially-independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
