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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2021)
2A | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021 | APPEAL TRIBUNE Oregon agrees to speed up unemployment payments Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309 Phone: 503-399-6773 Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK Oregon’s unemploy- ment system is going to have to make significant improvements to speed up its claims handling processes, something the state has lagged in sig- nificantly since the be- ginning of the pandemic. And it’s going to have to do so quickly to meet the requirements of a lawsuit settlement. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit Oregon in March 2020 and initial unemployment claims soared, the Oregon Em- ployment Department fell behind in a key area that the federal govern- ment uses to track unem- ployment claims — pay- ing the first week of un- employment benefits within 21 days. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Oregon’s rate fell from 97.4% in March to 54.7% in May and con- tinued to decline to 23.3% in November. Under the settlement, which will be the subject of a March 16 hearing, the department will have to speed up all of its proc- esses and make its ser- vices more accessible to non-English language speakers by March 1. The lawsuit, filed in July 2020 by attorneys from the Oregon Law Center, a non-profit legal center that serves low-in- come communities, sought to compel the de- David Gerstenfeld took the helm of the Oregon Employment Department on May 31, 2020. COURTESY OREGON EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT partment to speed up its processes in issuing un- employment benefits and expand the language ac- cessibility. The initial lawsuit said plaintiffs had to wait 17 weeks for their benefits. The plaintiffs won a summary judgement in early December, compel- ling the department to speed up its processes. In a news release, the department said it would hire and train more work- ers to handle unemploy- ment claims, but didn’t specify how that would speed up the process. Oregon Employment Department acting direc- tor David Gerstenfeld said the department had 1,000 people processing claims as of August. “We have made signifi- cant headway since the onset of the pandemic, improving our communi- cation with claimants, of- fering more services and resources in languages other than English, proc- essing claims more quickly, and closing in on our backlog,” Gerstenfeld said in the statement. “We are committed to doing right by the Orego- nians relying on us, reaching the goals set forth in the proposed set- tlement, and being trans- parent about our progress along the way.” According to Decem- ber data, Oregon had im- proved to paying the first week of benefits in a timely manner to 50.6%, though that number was still far below the federal standard. Oregon and a few other states, including Ken- tucky, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Caroli- na and Washington, have struggled to get up to the federal standard of 87% of claims in 21 days. The settlement will cover all people in Oregon who have applied for un- employment since March 2020. Among other issues the parties agreed to in the settlement, the state will: h Speed up its adjudi- cation process by work- ing through all claims in that status as of Mid-Jan- uary by March 1 and meet timeliness standards with its adjudication process by April 1. h Expand services for non-English speakers, in- cluding allowing them to receive retroactive bene- fits they had been unable to apply for initially due Fax: 503-399-6706 Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com Staff News Director Don Currie 503-399-6655 dcurrie@statesmanjournal.com Advertising Westsmb@gannett.com Classifieds: call 503-399-6789 Retail: call 503-399-6602 Legal: call 503-399-6789 Missed Delivery? 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One of the early plain- tiffs in the lawsuit, Lisa Exterovich, said she lost her job early in the pan- demic and waited months to receive unem- ployment benefits or get any communication about whether she was eligible for it. “The Employment De- partment is committing to paying people benefits more quickly, working to improve communica- tions with those seeking benefits, and providing assistance to people who don’t speak English,” Ex- terovich said in a state- ment. The original plaintiffs in the lawsuit had their claims processed shortly after the original suit was filed and the suit was turned into a proposed class action. The lawsuit gave the first accurate glimpse into how many people in the state had claims stuck in the adjudication process. The department originally said it had 49,000 cases in adjudica- tion in September, but court filings indicated there were 96,000. In the final week of January, the department had fewer than 10,000 cases in adjudication, Gerstenfeld said. Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Con- tact him at bpoehler@ statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler. Sports Continued from Page 1A teams in extreme risk counties to return to the field. Even the OSAA an- nounced on Twitter it was seeking more clarification about the opting-in proc- ess. South Eugene athletic director and boys basket- ball coach Dave Hancock assumed the decision to opt-in for Eugene’s four public high schools would come from the 4J School District. “It’s not up to individ- ual schools,” Hancock said. “It’s up to the dis- trict.” Schools in extreme and high risk counties want- ing to opt in must also have at least limited in- person instruction occur- ring or a plan in place for hybrid instruction this school year. Season 2 for the Ore- gon School Activities As- sociation has started. Most schools have been conducting socially dis- tant conditioning prac- tices as they awaited a de- cision by Brown. High school soccer and cross country were already cleared to return with their start date set for Feb. 22. Indoor contact sports Nathaniel Gubbels practices with teammates at Silverton High School. ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL like volleyball and basket- ball are still prohibited in all high- and extreme-risk counties. There have been no high school sports in Oregon since state bas- ketball tournaments were canceled in mid-March 2020. Until Wednesday’s decision, Oregon and California were the only Public Notices PUBLIC POLICY NOTICES Public Notices are published by the Statesman Journal and available online at w w w .S ta te s m a n J o u r n a l.c o m . The Statesman Journal lobby is open Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can reach them by phone at 503-399-6789. In order to receive a quote for a public notice you must e-mail your copy to SJLegals@StatesmanJournal.com , and our Legal Clerk will return a proposal with cost, publication date(s), and a preview of the ad. LEGAL/PUBLIC NOTICE DEADLINES All Legals Deadline @ 1:00 p.m. on all days listed below: ***All Deadlines are subject to change when there is a Holiday. The Silverton Appeal Tribune is a one day a week (Wednesday) only publication • Wednesday publication deadlines the Wednesday prior LEGAL/PUBLIC NOTICE RATES Silverton Appeal Tribune: • Wednesdays only - $12.15/per inch/per time • Online Fee - $21.00 per time • Affidavit Fee - $10.00 per Affidavit requested two states that neither played a high school foot- ball season this school year nor had a plan to play. “To all of Oregon’s high school athletes: I am ask- ing you to now be leaders in your communities,” Brown said. “We’ve given you a chance to play, but with that opportunity comes great responsibil- ity. If COVID-19 numbers spike, we may have to shut down contact sports again. When you are off the field, set the example for your peers: Wear a mask, maintain physical distance, and avoid social gatherings.” Brown also said that if lower small colleges like NAIA Willamette Univer- sity and Chemeketa Com- munity College want to return in full, they have to meet the same standards as Oregon’s Division I pro- grams in regards to regu- lar testing, plans for con- tact tracing, isolation and quarantine, and health and safety protocols for practices and games. Statesman Journal re- porter Luis Ramirez con- tributed to this story. Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@reg- isterguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit reg- isterguard.com. Mergers cludes Planned Parent- hood Advocates of Ore- gon, Basic Rights Oregon, the ACLU of Oregon, Prism Health and SEIU Local 49. Large hospital sys- tems and associations have indicated to bill pro- ponents that they will look to amend some as- pects of the proposal be- fore they would be willing to support it. The Oregon Associa- tion of Hospitals and Health Systems declined to comment for this story about its position on the proposed legislation. Partners and CareOregon announced their intent to merge. The deal was called off in May. Proponents of HB 2362 said it was nearly impos- sible to find answers to questions they had about how the merger might impact services, particu- larly for those on the Ore- gon Health Plan through CareOregon. “It’s not a Providence- specific problem; it can be a large health system problem,” said Peter Par- isot, chief of staff and chief legal officer at Cas- cade AIDS Project and Prism Health, an LGBTQ clinic in Portland. “There isn’t an agency that really has eyes on this issue. The bill is an attempt to give some oversight au- thority to the Oregon Health Authority.” Parisot said particular communities already struggle with access to care and mergers can harm that access even further. “At the end of the day, if these consolidations do the things that they say they do … I don’t have a problem with consolida- tion. What we’ve seen is that’s not really true,” he said. Reporter Connor Rad- novich covers the Oregon Legislature and state government. Contact him at cradnovich@states- manjournal.com or 503- 399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRad- novich. Continued from Page 1A tors that contribute to health inequities. The oversight is limit- ed to entities that had $25 million or more in net pa- tient revenue in the pre- ceding three fiscal years. The bill also would re- quire the convening of a review board of individ- uals from impacted com- munities, health care ex- perts and consumer ad- vocates for each pro- posed deal. The board could request documen- tation and hold public hearings to discuss the potential transaction. The stakeholder group behind the legislation in- Seeking information The idea for the bill originated two years ago when Providence Plan
