Oregon has agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle a years-long legal dispute with a company that provided care to Medicaid patients, according to a March 26 Salem Statesman Journal article.
FamilyCare sued the Oregon Health Authority in 2017, according to the article. An amended complaint filed in April 2021 alleged repeated issues with how the state decided FamilyCare's rates. It alleged the rates were lower than of any other coordinated care organization from 2015-2017.
The company stated in the lawsuit that the low rates forced it to stop providing services to Medicaid patients in early 2018. FamilyCare was the state's second-largest coordinated care organization, with about 120,000 patients.
The settlement was announced about a month before the case was set to go to trial. The agreement has not been signed, but will be drafted over the next few weeks, according to the article.
FamilyCare will receive the money over a four-year period, according to the article. The company said it will donate the money to the Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest.