20 Years of Service - Mid Rogue Independent Physician Association

Health

Mid Rogue IPA

Twenty years of service to physicians and patients in Southern Oregon

Story by Valerie Coulman

Since 1994, Mid Rogue has been changing the face of healthcare in Southern Oregon. Twenty years ago, a group of physicians in Josephine County and Rogue River joined together with the express goal of providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to area residents. Mid Rogue Independent Physician Association (IPA) has grown to encompass more than 80 physicians and is part of a family of businesses that includes the IPA, CareSource Health Plan, AllCare Coordinated Care Organization (Oregon’s first accredited CCO) and Mid Rogue eHealth Services. In 2015, Mid Rogue will also offer a health plan for state employees in Jackson, Josephine, Curry and parts of Douglas counties. Mid Rogue credits its success to its local presence, its commitment to personal service and preventive health initiatives, and its integration of physical, mental and dental healthcare.

One of the Company’s core goals is to support physicians in this rapidly changing healthcare environment. “We provide services to local physicians to reduce cost and administrative burdens, allowing physicians to do what they do best—practice medicine,” says Freddy Sennhauser, Vice President of Marketing and Communication. Those services include administrative assistance, contracting with insurance companies, recruiting new physicians to our region, providing medical records support and disseminating timely information to physicians and their staff on a regular basis.

“From its inception, the Company has been a strong resource for our community and our clinical practice,” says Rick Williams, MD, independent physician at Mountainview Family Practice in Grants Pass, and Board Chair for Mid Rogue’s family of businesses. “Not all physicians want to be employed by a hospital,” he points out, and a network of independent healthcare providers “allows physicians to have strength in numbers.” He emphasizes Mid Rogue’s focus on providing locally managed and coordinated services that allows physicians and care coordinators to develop and implement individualized patient treatment plans. “Personal oversight and management allows us to best use our community resources,” says Williams. “We have the leeway, by managing at a local level, to allow for special circumstances.”

The changes introduced by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased healthcare options for many residents of Southern Oregon and brought dramatic growth to Mid Rogue’s health plan for Medicaid beneficiaries, AllCare. “AllCare CCO has gained more than 20,000 new enrollees due to the expansion of Medicaid as part of the ACA. Now many people and their families have access to healthcare benefits and services that they previously were not able to receive because of cost or preexisting conditions,” says Sennhauser.

Mid Rogue’s community involvement covers a gamut of activities that frequently extend beyond their physicians or their health plan enrollees to the community at large. “Because we offer services in three counties,” says Williams, “we need to be aware of those individual [community] needs.” From weekly walking groups to food bank and local library support, foster child and maternity outreach, to an addiction recovery fair, the company is active in both educating and caring for southern Oregon’s residents. The Mid Rogue Foundation helps provide affordable and accessible healthcare to the area’s most vulnerable patients.

With the teamwork of Mid Rogue’s family of businesses and its network of independent physicians, Southern Oregon residents enjoy the benefits of working with medical professionals who understand the complexities of the healthcare system while still providing individualized and comprehensive care.

That’s two decades of making Southern Oregon a healthier place to live.

Mid Rogue Independent Physician Association

740 SE 7^th Street, Grants Pass

541-471-4106

1390 Biddle Road, Suite 105, Medford

541-734-5520

www.mripa.org