There are a few routes by which one might end up in the care of a Providence health system specialist—say, a neurologist. As of this week, a subset of lower-income Portlanders would find that an important path has been closed.
In the latest sign of a health system struggling with rising costs, Providence Medical Group as of Feb. 15 halted new referrals to most of its specialty clinic services for members of the CareOregon/Health Share version of the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid system.
With more members than any other within Health Share of Oregon—which has more than 400,000 Medicaid enrollees in total—the CareOregon Medicaid plan is easily the largest in the Portland metro area…