Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth’s plan to replace emergency services contracts at three Oregon locations has raised questions as to whether the move violated the state’s new corporate healthcare transaction law, according to a March 10 article in The Lund Report.
PeaceHealth announced that it would not renew contracts with Eugene (Ore.) Emergency Physicians Feb. 6. Less than a week later, the Oregon Nurses Association submitted a petition arguing against the move. In the following days, medical staff at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, Ore., would formally vote “no confidence” in two PeaceHealth Oregon leaders over their role in the decision.
Last year, Oregon’s Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill enacting the strictest regulations on corporate entities in healthcare in the nation. Broadly speaking, the law seeks to redefine the list of entities allowed to engage in the practice of medicine and medical decision-making — including hiring, setting work hours and determining compensation either directly or indirectly — through management services agreements…