Take action first
Oregon’s governor and legislators are considering limiting or removing acupuncture, chiropractic, physical therapy, massage, and naturopathic care from the Oregon Health Plan. The governor’s budget is due December 1st, and legislators are meeting in Salem this fall. Now is the time to write.
* Find your legislators: Oregon Legislature – Find Your Legislator
* Adrianna’s Patient Testimonial Template: [Find it here]
* Let us know you sent it: Tracking form
It takes about 15 minutes. If you’re a practitioner, share the template with your OHP patients. There’s also a handwritten version and flyers for your waiting room below:
About this episode
Adrianna Locke and I go way back. We went to school together and trained under the same Sifu. She’s been practicing in Portland since 2011, and her path runs from social service work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to community acupuncture research at Helfgott, to Working Class Acupuncture, to founding Zócalo Wellness. Zócalo is a culturally specific clinic serving communities of color and queer clients, and it takes OHP.
We talk about:
* How Oregon became one of the few states to cover acupuncture under Medicaid, through the HERC and the Prioritized List
* What the governor’s advisory group has proposed, and the difference between limiting the benefit and removing it
* Why a full cut could threaten acupuncture’s essential health benefit status and affect private insurance coverage, not just OHP
* Why this matters even if you don’t take insurance
* Health Care for All Oregon and the push for single payer
* Ceiba Medicine, Adrianna’s ancestral lineage healing practice
Correction
In the episode, I said about 60% of Oregon’s Medicaid funding is federal. It’s closer to 75%.
Connect with Adrianna
* Ceiba Medicine (ancestral lineage healing, free consults): ceibamedicine.com
* Zócalo Wellness: zocalowellness.com
Resources mentioned
On the Medicaid budget:
* Governor’s Advisory Group on Medicaid Sustainability – Final Report
* OPB: Oregon eyes $421 million in Medicaid cuts
* Oregon Capital Chronicle: GOP tax law will cost Oregon nearly $1.3B for Medicaid
Research:
* Tippens, Chao, Connelly & Locke (2013), Patient Perspectives on Care Received at Community Acupuncture Clinics: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis. Adrianna is a co-author.
* Chao, Tippens & Connelly (2012), Utilization of Group-Based, Community Acupuncture Clinics
Organizations:
* Ancestral Medicine, Daniel Foor: ancestralmedicine.org
* Oregon Association of Acupuncturists: https://www.oregonacupuncturists.com
Thank you to Amber Reding, whose template Adrianna’s letter builds on.
