An Oregon legislative committee planned to grill three former employees of the Oregon Health Authority on Monday — but none of them showed up.
The committee wanted to raise questions about a controversial plan to plant negative stories about Oregon health care nonprofit FamilyCare. But none of the three employees asked to testify, including former agency Director Lynne Saxton, appeared before the panel.
The hearing was scheduled after news reports in August that OHA had developed the plan as part of its efforts to discredit FamilyCare, which has been engaged in a long-running dispute over the rates the state pays for providing health care to low-income Oregonians.
OHA had proposed feeding ideas for negative stories about FamilyCare to several Oregon journalists as part of a strategy to sway public opinion against the health care provider.
While the plan was never implemented, three OHA employees, including Saxton, left the agency after the plan became public.
Members of the Oregon Senate’s Interim Committee on General Government and Accountability sought to have the three testify at its Monday meeting.
Saxton's attorney responded to the testimony request with a letter explaining that Saxton "respectfully declines." Attorney Steven Blackhurst said he has advised Saxton "not to make public statements about her service at the Oregon Health Authority so long as there is pending litigation between FamilyCare and the Oregon Health Authority."
The new director of the OHA, Patrick Allen, did appear before the legislative panel.
Allen was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown to replace Saxton. He distanced himself from the plan to discredit FamilyCare, saying the "communications plan is not at all the kind of product that I would request as an agency head, nor have developed on my watch. Going forward, that's certainly not the sort of thing that the agency would pursue."
Members of the committee conceded that Allen, who’s been on the job less than a month, was not responsible for the situation.
But Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, said she thinks there’s more to the story. Thatcher said she’s not convinced the Oregon Health Authority has really weeded out the problem.
“I’m not feeling totally confident that getting rid of three people is going to actually change a culture,” she said. “In fact, I think there are still people there who are involved. We just don’t know who they are.”
Thatcher suggested the committee use its subpoena powers to compel the three former OHA employees to testify.
“I really feel like we are missing an opportunity,” she said.
But Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, noted that the three had already lost their jobs. He questioned the need to force those people to appear before the committee.
“It feels to me like that’s stomping on the grave,” Hass said. “And I don’t know that there’s anything productive in that.”
The panel also heard from FamilyCare CEO Jeff Heatherington, who called the situation “a stunning example of government run amuck, and an unbelievable departure from the duty of (OHA) to fairly and impartially administer the Oregon Health Plan.”
Still, Heatherington offered an olive branch.
“Despite past actions of (OHA),” he said, “we believe we can work with them to find some mutually agreeable paths forward, whereby FamilyCare can continue its 34-year history of serving Oregon’s Medicaid population.”
