Announcement
After careful consideration, and in light of budget reductions, we have decided to end the Oregon Provider Directory (OPD) program.
The Oregon Health Authority implemented the Oregon Provider Directory (OPD) for use by organizations in the Medicaid enterprise (e.g., CCOs, providers, clinics, and their staff). The OPD has been a core component of OHA’s efforts to support care coordination, health information exchange, administrative efficiencies, and health analytics. Specifically, the OPD was intended to be a centralized source of trusted provider data.
However, during the early stages of onboarding organizations to the OPD in March 2020 OHA paused soft launch due to COVID-19. Ultimately, the OPD did not receive the funds needed to continue the program. OHA leveraged Medicaid HITECH Act funding for the OPD which expires in 2021 and needed to transition to regular Medicaid funding. That shift required additional state fund match, which was not included in the final OHA 21-23 state budget which prioritized funding for health equity, behavioral health, and public health.
FAQs
What was the purpose of the OPD?
The initial purpose of the OPD was support Medicaid providers and organizations by providing an accurate, centralized source of provider data that would support coordinated care, increase efficiencies, and enhance analytic and reporting capabilities. There were no legislative mandates to use the OPD.
How were stakeholders involved in the OPD?
The Provider Directory Advisory Committee (PDAC) met from 2015-2019 to provide the Oregon Health Authority subject matter guidance on the development of provider directory services. The PDAC was comprised of external stakeholders representing a wide range of roles and affiliations within the health information technology arena. PDAC built on the past work from the
Provider Directory Workgroup.
In addition, a provider directory subject matter expert workgroup was convened from 2017-2019 to ensure the Provider Directory would meet the needs of users, provide input on program policies, technical components, and user workflows, and participate in user acceptance testing.
OHA is deeply appreciative of the hard work and time put in by the members of the PDAC and the Provider Directory Workgroup.
How was the OPD Implemented?
In September 2019, the OPD was implemented in an incremental approach, starting with a soft launch to a volunteer group of organizations in Central Oregon. The purpose of soft launch was to allow users to use the OPD in for a targeted set of use cases, test the quality of the data, and establish a clear value proposition before rolling it out to a broader audience. After soft launch, planning for incremental rollout would follow until the OPD reached statewide adoption. However, soft launch was paused for external users in March 2020 due to COVID-19, and the OPD program focused on internal OHA uses and augmenting OPD data sources.
What led to the decision to end the program?
The OPD did not receive the funds needed to continue the program. OHA leveraged Medicaid HITECH Act funding for the OPD which expires in 2021 and needed to transition to regular Medicaid funding. That shift required additional state fund match, which was not included in the final OHA 21-23 budget which prioritized funding for health equity, behavioral health, and public health.OHA explored whether there were other opportunities to fund the work, but after careful consideration, OHA made the difficult decision to end the OPD.
How was the OPD funded and what were the costs to participate in the OPD? There were no costs to organizations to participate in the OPD. OHA received Medicaid HITECH Act funding at a 90% Federal Match rate from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to support the OPD. HITECH funding expires in 2021 so OHA needed to transition from federal HITECH funding to regular Medicaid federal funding. That shift required additional state fund match to continue existing work. The share of funding needed to support ongoing OPD work was not included in the final OHA 21-23 budget, which was approved by the legislature at the end of June 2021. Total costs to develop, design, implement, and operate the OPD since inception of the project was about $12 million, 10% of which were state funds.
Do other states have statewide provider directories? Provider directories can take many forms and serve a variety of purposes. The context and uses for the directories may differ. For example, payers manage their own provider data to populate their patient-facing directories and their billing systems. The OPD was intended to be a statewide cross-payer/cross-provider master provider directory to support administrative efficiencies, care coordination, and analytics at a state level. Though California has a legislatively mandated provider directory, most states do not offer directories at this level.
Where can I look for more information? All historical information will continue to be available on the
OPD program site. For additional questions, program contact emails are as follows:
FAQ Archive
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
FAQs last updated December 2019.
Resources Archive
Oregon Provider Directory Overview
Overview of Oregon's Provider Directory work and solution
Updated January 2019
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)