After months of review, Multnomah County’s health department still couldn’t track down documents showing where 131 gift cards and other cash incentives were distributed.
Those items, doled out from mid-2021 to mid-2025, were worth a total of $151,000, according to the county. Staff can dispense gift cards, transit tickets and other types of prepaid support to encourage people to obtain preventative health care or participate in focus groups and to show appreciation for volunteers, among other things. Gift cards must be distributed within a month of purchase under county policy.
Employees are required to track when and where gift cards are handed out, and those physical documents must be filed to the health finance division within five business days of a card being distributed. But the county Health Department’s finance director discovered last year that staff might not have consistently followed that policy. The director then initiated a review of gift card documentation in September…