OR governor seeks to expand coordinated care organizations

With coordinated care organizations in full swing for the Medicaid population, Governor John Kitzhaber is setting his sights on the next targets—people on Medicare, the state's public employees and the private business sector. Coordinated care organizations, which emerged in August, represent a new way of delivering healthcare—physical, mental and oral health under one umbrella—while the focus is on prevention, lowering costs and improving quality. Eventually, each CCO will have a global budget for all these healthcare services with targeted goals. Thus far, 500,000 people formerly on the Oregon Health Plan have joined one of 13 CCOs around the state.