OHA seeks candidates for Oregon Health Policy Board

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority are seeking qualified candidates to serve on the Oregon Health Policy Board. The governor is looking for individuals who are committed to improving health, improving health care, and lowering health care costs in Oregon.

The OHPB is a nine-member board appointed by the governor. It serves as the policy-making body for OHA and is responsible for improving the health care delivery system as well as improving the health of Oregonians by developing state public health goals, strategies, programs and performance standards.

While all applications will be considered, based on current membership there is interest in identifying board members who are located outside of the Portland metro area and have expertise in one or more of the following topic areas:

• Equity, diversity and inclusion (professional and lived expertise, ally or representative from underrepresented communities or experiencing health inequities).
• Tribal member or representative.
• Board member experience (service on a high profile, high functioning board).
• Health insurance (commercial, self-insured, or public).
• Business (small or large).
• Health policy.
• Finance.

The term of office is four years, and each member serves at the pleasure of the Governor. Upon nomination by the Governor, nominees must be confirmed by the state senate.

ORS 413.007 requires that the board consists of individuals who:

• Have demonstrated leadership skills in their professional and civic lives.
• Represent, to the greatest extent possible, various geographic, ethnic, gender, racial and economic diversity of the state.
• Collectively offer expertise, knowledge and experience in consumer advocacy, management of a company that offers health insurance to its employees, public health, finance, organized labor, health care and operation of a small business.
• Are citizens of the United States and are residents of Oregon.

At this time, new members cannot receive income or be employed in a health care or health care-related field or receive benefits from a publicly funded state health benefit plan (due to membership composition requirements in ORS 413.007).

If you are interested, please submit an interest form via email to the Governor’s Office at executive.appointments@oregon.gov no later than December 28, to be considered for Senate confirmation in February 2021. Please note: applications are accepted on a rolling basis and may be submitted at any time; interested parties are asked to submit their interest form by by Dec. 28 to be considered for the senate confirmation hearing scheduled for February.

Additional information on submitting your application can be found here on the Governor's website at http://www.oregon.gov/gov/admin/Pages/How_To_Apply.aspx.

Recent OHPB priorities:

• Improving health equity and addressing the social determinants of health (examples: adopting a health equity definition and language access measure, implementing State Health Improvement Plan).
• Reducing the total cost of health care (examples: setting a health care cost growth target, addressing high cost of prescription drugs, and exploring options to advance the coordinated care model).
• Focusing on children’s health (examples: partnering to better integrate children's behavioral health, physical health and family support needs and universally offered home visiting).

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Everyone has a right to know about and use OHA programs and services. OHA provides free help. Some examples of the free help OHA can provide are:

• CART (live captions).
• Sign language and spoken language interpreters.
• Written materials in other languages.
• Braille.
• Large print.
• Audio and other formats.

If you need help or have questions, please contact Tara Chetock at 971-304-9917, 711 TTY, a.a.chetock@dhsoha.state.or.us">tara.a.chetock@dhsoha.state.or.us.