Systemically Important Rural Hospitals

Resource library

Browse public materials and review their sources, dates, and status.

Visual explainer: How the money moves

Showing 17 of 17 resources

  1. The whole picture: regional rural hospitals and Oregon payment policy

    Why some regional rural hospitals do not fit Oregon's existing categories, the three questions any proposal must answer, and how coordinated care organizations fit.

    Policy · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  2. Three hospitals and the communities around them

    Bay Area Hospital, Mercy Medical Center and Sky Lakes Medical Center serve wide rural regions of southern Oregon. This page describes their ownership, classifications and reported care, using dated public records.

    Policy · Explainer · about 6 minutes

  3. How Oregon Medicaid hospital money works

    How Oregon Health Plan coverage becomes a hospital payment, how federal matching and the hospital assessment work, and what familiar percentages do and do not mean.

    Funding · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  4. The federal frame: what changed, what is proposed and what is in court

    How 2025 federal legislation, proposed CMS rules, coverage requirements and rural transformation grants each affect Oregon's hospital payment choices, with their dates and status.

    Policy · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  5. The problem in public numbers

    What audited and monthly public hospital data show for the three hospitals, why different reports differ, and what a payment proposal would still need to establish.

    Funding · Explainer · about 6 minutes

  6. The design choices: class, payment and financing

    Why a designation alone pays nothing, the main ways a protected payment could work, the lawful-funding question, and the project's financing boundaries.

    Funding · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  7. Questions and answers: twenty-seven common questions

    Short, sourced answers to the questions readers ask most often about the proposal, the money, federal limits, timing and who stands behind this site. Start here before the longer explanations.

    Policy · Explainer · about 8 minutes

  8. Precedents: what other places actually prove

    Oregon’s SB 1214 and existing rural payment rules, Washington’s hospital classes, Texas CHIRP and other examples show different pieces of a possible design, with their limits.

    Policy · Explainer · about 7 minutes

  9. Who decides, who implements and who needs to be heard

    The separate roles of hospital boards, the Legislature, the Governor, OHA, CMS, CCOs and regional institutions in turning a proposal into payment, without implying anyone's support.

    Governance · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  10. Straight answers before a promise

    Hard questions about measurement, alternatives, funding sources and help already provided, answered with the limits of the evidence kept in view.

    Policy · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  11. The process and calendar: from a proposal to cash

    The steps between a policy idea and money in a hospital account, the 2027 legislative dates, the federal review routes, and why no payment date is promised.

    Governance · Explainer · about 5 minutes

  12. Glossary: sixty terms in plain English

    Plain-English and technical definitions for sixty terms used in Oregon hospital payment discussions, from Medicaid and capitation to grandfathering and net retained benefit.

    Policy · Explainer · about 12 minutes

  13. For legislators and staff: the public decision

    A one-page guide to the decision a legislature would face: which hospitals qualify, what obligation changes, who pays and what accountability follows.

    Policy · Briefing · about 3 minutes

  14. For hospital boards: what a board would need to decide

    A guide for governing boards on the evidence, obligations and authority a board would need before taking any position on a payment proposal.

    Governance · Briefing · about 2 minutes

  15. For community members: keeping regional hospital care understandable

    A plain-language guide to what regional hospitals provide, what the proposal would and would not do, and how to check the facts.

    Policy · Briefing · about 2 minutes

  16. For reporters: the record and the open questions

    The dated public record behind this project, the distinctions that keep coverage accurate, and the questions that remain open.

    Policy · Briefing · about 2 minutes

  17. Corrections and changes

    A dated record of substantive corrections and replacements to the resources on this site.

    Governance · Briefing · about 1 minute

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