The resident services peer group meets every second Monday of the month. Roseanne Marmor is the facilitator. This March we welcomed two guests from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) who addressed access to healthcare in the marketplace, and specifically for our residents.  

Ellie Solares and Sean Snyder discussed the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) and the online insurance marketplace. OHP provides physical, behavioral, vision, and dental care services. OHP now includes Flex Funds, which can pay for healthcare related items such as air conditioners, air purifiers, education programs, bug mitigation, one-time rental payments and more. Note: Flex Funds can be accessed once all other avenues for getting those services have been exhausted.  

If someone is new to OHP, and they do not have their insurance cards, within the first 14-days of receiving OHP, people have access to free advice from a nurse by calling 800-562-4620. During the meeting, some attendees expressed concern about their residents being removed from OHP when the pandemic health related benefits end. However, this will not occur until the federal government, not the Oregon state government, changes the guidelines. 

Additionally, Helen Buckingham from Community Partners in Affordable Housing (CPAH), let folks know that residents can access OHP ID cards for Oregon without incurring charges.  We will explore this more at our next meeting. 

Here are some helpful links share by Sean Snyder:

Helpful resource for explaining Care Coordination: http://careoregon.org/docs/default-source/members/hso-care-coordination-handout-20115275-en-0106-web.pdf