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December 8,1999
Page A3
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Oregon awarded grant to better
coordinate Medicare, Medicaid
CONTRIBUTED STORY
for T he
P ortland O bserver
Oregon has received a $300,000 grant
to pursue better ways to manage the
federal governm ent’s two multi-
billion-dollar medical programs -
Medicare and Medicaid - to improve
care and control costs.
The focus will be on about 40,000
Oregonians who are eligible for both
programs, accounting for about 15
percent ofbeneficiaries but about 30
percent o f costs. The program s,
managed by the Federal Health Care
Financing Administration, do not
coordinate well with each other.
Oregon has received the 18-month
grant from the New Jersey-based
R o b ert W ood Jo h n so n (R W J)
Foundation to support planning, data
collection and analysis. Oregon is
one o f 12 RWJ project sites looking at
integrating Medicare and Medicaid.
The RWJ Foundation is the nation’s
la rg e st p h ila n th ro p y d e v o te d
exclusively to health and health care.
“We will use this grant to develop
m o d e ls o f m o re in te g ra te d ,
coordinated medical and long-term
care to maintain and improve the
health o f Oregonians who are elderly
and disabled,” said Roger Auerbach,
Senior and Disabled Services (SDSD)
a d m in is tra to r in the O reg o n
D epartm ent o f Human Services.
SDSD and the DHS Office ofMedical
Assistance programs are managing
the project.
As society ages, Auerbach said,
Medicaid and Medicare costs are
having more impact on state and
federal budgets. “We have to deliver
the most appropriate medical and
long-term care to people in the most
efficient manner possible to make our
resources meet this increasing need,”
he said.
Medicare is the federal health-care
program for people ages 65 and older
and people with long-term disabilities,
and is financed solely by the federal
government; Medicaid, a program for
low-income people, derives nearly a
th ird o f its bu d g et from state
governments.
A u erb ach said co o rd in atio n is
im portant because if an elderly
M ed icare b e n e fic ia ry becom es
impoverished, he or she will probably
d ep en d on the state-supported
Medicaid program that pays for long
term care. (Medicare pays forneither
long-term care nor for drug costs;
Medicaid pays for both.)
Auerbach said better coordinating
Medicaid and Medicare can balance
complex medical and long-term care
needs such as prescriptions, physical
therapy, personal care, nutrition and
h o u sin g . “ T his can m ake the
difference between someone staying
in the community or going to a nursing
home,” he said.
Rhodes rewards two Oregon scholars
A ssociated P ress
As thousands o f families and educators waited to hear who the next Rhodes
Scholars would be, Jo Cannon o f West Linn heard the good news _ twice.
First, her son, Ben, a 1999 graduate o f Washington University in St. Louis,
called to say that he had been awarded one o f the 32 coveted scholarships.
Then the staff at Reed College, where Jo Cannon works for the Committee on
Fellowships and Awards, called to say that Reed’s nominee, Derek Lyons of
Portland, also had been selected.
“Waiting for that phone call was just torture, but when it came, 1 felt calm,” Jo
Cannon said. “I was just so happy.”
Ben Cannon and Lyons were chosen from 935 applicants endorsed by 323
universities, the secretary o f the Rhodes Scholarship Trust announced. They
will join an international group of95 who will receive two to three years o f study
at Oxford University in England,
including all university fees and a
stipend, a total value o f about $25,000
a year.
The two survived a rigorous, three-
stage selection process that began
with college endorsements earlier this
year, followed by a state selection
committee that narrowed the field on
W ednesday.
On Saturday, the final selection was
made by eight district committees
following personal interviews with a
panel o f former scholars.
In Minneapolis, Cannon and other
applicants played Trivial Pursuit in a
waiting room for hours before winners
were announced.
In San Francisco, Lyons paced in a
similar waiting room. He said the
process was tun, “very-scary, heart-
pounding, clammy-hands kindoffun.”
When the winners were announced,
“I tried really hard not to pass out,”
said Lyons, 21. "It was an incredible
for T he
P ortland O bserver
Oregon Health Plan members smoke
at a rate alm ost double that o f
O re g o n ia n s as a w hole - so
encouraging them to quit is especially
important
Now, an initiative to encourage doctor
and dentists to advised O regon
Health Plan members to quit smoking
appears to be paying o ff a new survey
fin d s th at O reg o n d o cto rs are
encouraging Oregon Health Plan
members to quit more often than
doctors nationally or regionally.
“We ’ re seeing our own version ofthe
Great American Smoke-out in doctors ’
offices all across the state,” said Hersh
Crawford, State Medicaid director in
O regon D ep artm en t o f H um an
Services. “ Our goal is to make the
smoking conversation as much a part
o f visit to the doctor’s office as having
your temperature taken or your blood
pressure checked.” Crawford said the
survey found that 70 percent above
those nationally or in the Pacific
states. For some o f Oregon’s 17
managed care plans, the rate was as
high as 82 percent, he said.
Smoking-cessation programs have
been an Oregon Health Plan-covered
benefit since May 1998. The health
plan enrolls about 360,00Oregonians.
Forty-two percent o f health plan
members smoke compared with 22
percent o f all Oregonians age 16 and
older.
“We know from research that people
are more likely to adopt healthy
behaviors if a physician recommends
it,” Crawford said. He said health
plans contact with the state health
plan are encouraging both doctors
and dentists to recommend smoking-
cessation programs to patients who
smoke.
"Because smoking is the nation’s
leading preventable cause of disease.
The Joyce Washington Memorial
Scholarship Fund Presents
Les Schwab/Blazer Alumni vs.
The Portland Observer's Cory Cougar’s
Charity Basketball Game
January 23, 2000 at 4 p.m.
Join the celebration and see the Portland
Observer family and friends take on the
Portland Trailblazer’s Alumni Team. This
benefit will create scholarship funds for those
less fortunate and will create a monument to
what Joyce Washington stood for...equal
opportunity and an education for everyone.
Self Enhancement Center Inc.
3920 N. Kerby Avenue, Portland, OR
O regon H ealth Plan sm okers
likely to be advised to quit
CONTRIBUTED STORY
honor just to be interviewed, but I didn’t even hear the names o f the other two
candidates.”
Lyons is a senior majoring in chemistry at Reed. He grew up in Pullman, W ash.,
and took classes at Washington State University while still in high school
under W ashington’s “running start” program.
He graduated as his class valedictorian but chose Reed College over Yale and
Stanford because Reed staff responded to his e-mail inquiries quickly and
warmly. He intends to study computer science at Oxford, specifically artificial
intelligence and artificial life.
Cannon, 23, is a 1994 graduate o f West Linn H igh. He plans to pursue a degree
in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.
He is considering a career in journalism, law or high school teaching. “ I want
to make a difference in my community, and one ofthe most important ways you
could do that is teaching,” he said.
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disability anddeath,’’Crawford said."
This is the most important thing we
can do to improve Oregonians ’ health
while also controlling health-care
costs.”
This practice by physicians has added
benefits because doctors who advise
Oregon Health Plan members to quit
are presumably also advising other
patients to do so as well, Crawford
said.
Crawford said the next steps would
be to find out whether patients follow
their physician’s quit-smoking advice
and, if they do, whether they are
successful in quitting.
Oregon Health Plan members and
o th e r O reg o n ian s m ay o b tain
information about smoking-cessation
programs by talking with their health
care provider, managed care plan or
by calling three state-run Quit Line
toll free at (877) 270-STOP (Spanish:
*77-2-NOFUMEorTTYU: 877-777-
6534)
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2535C NE. Alberta
331-1422
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707 NE Fremont
281-6515
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1305 NE Fremont
7344.7344
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3939 NE MLK Blvd. Suite 109
280-8000
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