AUG UST   4–11 , 2021 WWW .GOE ASTE RNO REGO N.CO M  Celebrat e East n Oreg Beer er on Festiva PAG E l 3 Art The Lit tle Big Sh ow PAG E 4 Watch Short Film Festiva l PAG E 13 Staff phot Leapin’ o by Ben Lone Louie during entertain rgan/East Oregonian the Uma s tilla Coun with lasso tricks ty Fair. Count y fairs Umatill a, Grant , Wallo wa PA GE S 8, 16 “The Their food is fre IP sh, , 19 Counting the costs of care lo Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian CHI ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL GOOD SHEPHERD MEDICAL CENTER Tonsil removal at CHI St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton, costs between $6,740 and $7,295, according to Oregon Health Authority data. An MRI for the head and spine costs $217 at Good Shepherd Medical Center, Hermiston, according to the All Payers, All Claims data. Baker City Herald, File Alex Wittwer/The Observer SAINT ALPHONSUS MEDICAL CENTER GRANDE RONDE HOSPITAL Hospitals in the Trinity Health system, such as Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, Baker City, are working toward increasing price transparency across the board. Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande, charges more for tonsil removal and less for an arthrocentesis com- pared to other area hospitals. Patient variables, markets play key roles in health care prices tner, vice president and chief revenue offi cer at Trinity Health, which owns the St. Alphonsus chain of hospitals in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. But even procedures that off er little vari- ation in execution can have dramatic varia- tions in price. An MRI for the head and spine costs $217 at Good Shepherd in Hermiston, according to the All Payers, All Claims data. That same procedure would cost $2,306 at Grande Ronde Hospital. “There appears to be no rhyme or reason behind how hospitals price their proce- dures,” said Jeremy Vandehey, director of Health Policy and Analytics at OHA. “A normal birth with no complications,” Van- dehey continued, “can vary a lot; so one hospital may charge $5,000 while another charges $15,000.” That remains true for several other pro- cedures as well, and it’s especially true in By ALEX WITTWER EO Media Group LA GRANDE — The long-awaited hos- pital price transparency laws have taken eff ect on the national level, following a landmark bill by the Trump administra- tion requiring hospitals to post their nego- tiated rates that insurers pay for typical procedures. For Oregon, it’s too little too late. In 2015, the Oregon Senate passed a law requiring hospitals to post the prices they paid for procedures to the All Payers, All Claims Reporting Program. Analysts at the Oregon Health Authority used the data to make reports about the prices of common procedures. The prices were all over the map. Arthrocentesis — removal of fl uid from a socket or joint — can range from $370 to $4,921 at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston and costs between $947 to $1,091 at Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande. Tonsil removal, another common proce- dure, costs between $8,018 and $10,281 at Grande Ronde, while an hour drive north- west to CHI St. Anthony Hospital in Pend- leton the procedure runs from $6,740 to $7,295. Hospitals argue that each patient is dif- ferent, and the care they receive is indica- tive of the unique challenges diagnosing and treating patients. “You might go in thinking that it’s a $20,000 inpatient surgical procedure and then you might get a bill for $40,000 because you have implantables, pharmacy, ultrasounds and the like,” said David Bit- Eastern Oregon, where Type A hospitals — hospitals that are more than 30 miles away from each other — are typically the only source of health care for rural residents. “When you have several payers com- peting for one hospital, they become price takers,” Vandehey said. Market power The intended eff ect of price transparency was to introduce healthy competition to a marketplace that had long been shrouded in secrecy. But Rajiv Sharma, a health eco- nomics professor at Portland State Univer- sity, said market power plays a big role in pricing. “If insurance companies are faced with one or two big hospital chains, then they don’t have very much negotiating power,” See, Health/Page A5 Fair returns ‘bigger and bett er’ By CARLOS FUENTES and DAVIS CARBAUGH The Observer LA GRANDE — County fairs can’t be planned overnight. They take months of work, from coordinating vendor sites to buying advertising to booking entertainment close to a year in advance. Usually, fair managers are responsible for dele- gating all of these responsi- bilities and overseeing plan- ning throughout the whole process. But this year’s Union County Fair man- ager? Her fi rst day on the job was Monday, July 26, nine days before the start of the fair. Kathy Gover-Shaw was hired in June 2021 and has taken the helm of the community event. “I did 4-H decades ago and I’ve always wanted to give back,” Gover-Shaw said. “This just came up and some friends on the board told me it would be a really good fi t.” After a year-long hiatus, the Union County Fair is back from Aug. 4-7, with several changes in the schedule and the leadership since the last county fair in 2019. Learning on the fl y With such little time to learn her new posi- tion, Gover-Shaw has relied heavily on the Union County Fair board mem- bers. The seven-person team plans the event months ahead of time, working with community partners like FFA, 4-H and the Lion’s Club to coordi- nate the county fair. WEATHER             ­   € Alex Wittwer/The Observer Terry and Julie Magill prepare their lemonade stand at the Union County Fairgrounds on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. “It’s a huge group of people that work together,” Gover-Shaw said. “It’s a community down here that makes this happen.” Full forecast on the back of B section Tonight Friday 60 LOW 80/54 Patchy clouds Not as warm ˆ‰…Š‡ˆˆ‚ƒ„ˆ‹‹…Œ‚‚…‚ Gover-Shaw took over for former fair manager Margaret Spence, who held See, Fair/Page A5 …­  † ‡ † ‚  ƒ  „