State Issues 

Community benefit is all the health care-related services that Oregon's community hospitals provide, without compensation, to address critical health needs in the community. These services include health services to vulnerable or underserved people; financial or in-kind support for public health programs; health education, screening, and prevention services; medical research; medical education; and more. Oregon's community hospitals provide these benefits through financial assistance, charity care and subsidies for services otherwise not available in the community. 

​For more information on Oregon Hospital Community Benefit, click here. 
 

Oregon Hospitals are frontline providers of behavioral health services and see thousands of mentally ill patients annually. OAHHS is a part of the statewide converstation about mental health reform and continues to advocate for solutions that will provide the highest quality of care to patients. 

​For more information on Behavioral Health, click here.
 

Oregon hospitals all have robust financial assistance policies that are designed to help their patients with hospital bills. These programs are accessible to all who demonstrate need. 

As part of HB 4020, passed by the Oregon State Legislature in 2018, Oregon’s nonprofit hospitals must provide for reducing patient costs based on the following income tiers (effective January 1, 2021):
 

For household incomes:	Policies must adjust the patient’s responsibility by:
200% or less of the federal poverty level	100%
Between 200% and 300% federal poverty level	75%
Between 300% and 350% federal poverty level	50%
Between 350% and 400% federal poverty level	25%

Note these requirements are a floor, not a ceiling. Hospitals may adopt additional financial assistance policies above and beyond these minimum standards. Hospitals are required to post their financial assistance policy online along with a plain language summary.

Uniform Financial Assistance Application

OAHHS, in partnership with the Washington State Hospital Association, developed a uniform financial assistance application that hospitals and patients may use in the financial assistance process. The application is found here and is also hosted on the Oregon Health Authority’s website here: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/HPA/ANALYTICS/Pages/Hospital-Reporting.aspx (scroll down to “Hospital Financial Assistance”)