Advocating for a healthier Oregon.

We support 61 hospitals in providing the very best care to millions of Oregonians. Our focus is on advancing a policy agenda that addresses hospitals’ current and long-term needs to sustain a health care system generations of Oregonians can rely on. 

Our 2023-2025 policy and advocacy goals:

Workforce development

We are working in partnership with labor unions and legislators on solutions that rebuild the pipeline of health care workers. 

Financial stability

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the broken model of health care financing. That’s why in the Legislature for the next two years we will support fully funding Medicaid and other programs to ensure access to care and bring financial stability to our hospitals.  

Our 2024 policy and advocacy goals

Reducing discharge delays

Every day, bureaucratic inefficiencies and staffing shortages mean that hundreds of patients wait to be discharged to a more appropriate care setting. We are committed to promoting collaboration between state agencies and stakeholders to reduce discharge barriers and alleviate staffing shortages in post-acute settings.

Regulatory relief

In order for health care workers to care for their communities no matter the circumstances, hospitals must be adaptable. We are working to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation on our hospitals so they can direct resources to patient care.

The 2024 legislative session in review

In the 82nd Oregon Legislature, a “short session,” lawmakers were focused on finding bipartisan solutions for critical issues like housing, homelessness, behavioral health and Oregon’s addiction crisis. While two-year budgets are set in odd-year sessions, the legislature made a significant investment in the DSH 3 program, helping preserve access to care for Oregonians who are uninsured or on Medicaid. 

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Session round up

The hospital association partnered with lawmakers, labor unions and other key stakeholders to achieve key objectives.

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Bills TRACKED
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TIMES OUR TEAM TESTIFIED
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bILLS SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED
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MILLION SECURED FOR dsh 3 program

Federal policy and advocacy

The Hospital Association of Oregon’s federal public policy agenda is designed to bolster our members’ efforts to provide Oregonians with the highest quality care. With our active involvement, members have a voice in the federal policymaking process.

How to take action

Advocating for better health care policy is a team sport, and we need your help. That’s why we’ve built a coalition committed to improving health care delivery in Oregon.

Stay informed. Know your legislators. Share your story.

In the 2024 legislative session, the hospital association:

Protected access to care.  

Drug companies are aggressively trying to reduce patients’ access to care. The hospital association played a leading role in advocating for legislation that helps ensure lower-income and rural patients can access urgently needed medications. The bill—HB 4028—successfully passed out of the Joint Committee on Rules, helping lay the groundwork for further discussion in the legislative sessions to come. The hospital association also successfully advocated for nearly $1 million in funding to increase hospitalized patients’ access to public guardians. 

Supported hospital staff. 

Working collaboratively with lawmakers, the Oregon Nurses Association, district attorneys, law enforcement and other groups, the hospital association worked hard to negotiate and advocate for HB 4088, a bill that would make an assault on a health care worker a felony and create a grant program to support enhanced security measures and training. Though the bill didn’t pass, it did make it further in the legislative process than similar bills from prior sessions, helping advance the conversation about workplace safety for health care workers.  

Helped stabilize hospitals’ finances. 

DSH 3 supports Oregon hospitals that serve a high proportion of low-income and uninsured patients. The hospital association was able to successfully secure $92 million in funding for this essential program, ensuring vulnerable populations can continue accessing vital health services. 

How to take action

We all feel the impacts of health care policy decisions made both in Salem and Washington, D.C., and it is our mission to educate legislators and policymakers on the full range of consequences of their proposed legislation. When legislators are grounded in the hospital perspective, they will have a more comprehensive understanding of how their decisions will affect our patients, staff and communities.

The hospital association helps our members speak with a collective voice on important policy matters, and your participation is vital to that effort.

How can you become an advocate?

  • Stay informed. Subscribe to Becky’s monthly column, which offers her perspective on pressing health care issues affecting our communities. 
  • Get to know your legislators and pay them a visit. Use the Who Represents Me in Oregon? tool from the Oregon State Legislature to find out who represents your area at the state and national levels, and consider getting to know them. We know that in-person visits are highly effective, both in Salem and in Washington, D.C. The hospital association arranges an annual trip to the AHA national conference in the nation’s capital, which always includes visits to Capitol Hill. If you are interested in joining us to visit legislators to advocate for health care issues, contact a member of the hospital association team.
  • Share your story. Personal stories bring to life the vital work that happens in hospitals every day. Consider sharing with us experiences that highlight care delivery and the people who make it happen. Click here to contact a member of the hospital association team.

Federal policy and advocacy

Our federal policy agenda guides the hospital association in addressing the challenges hospitals face as they seek to fulfill their missions of serving the health needs of their communities. It is aligned with the American Hospital Association’s policy agenda and is based on principles that have guided the hospital association’s public policy development for several years. These principles are:

  • Ensuring access to care and providing financial relief
  • Strengthening the health care workforce
  • Advancing quality, equity and transformation
  • Enacting regulatory and administrative relief

We are proud to advocate for federal policies that support hospitals so they can support Oregonians.