Health care conversations from Southern Oregon

Angela Dowling reflects on a recent visit to Southern Oregon, which included speaking with the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County as well as KOBI-5 about the importance of driving value-based care, empowering health care consumers, and giving back to Oregon communities.

“What’s changed and what’s remained consistent in health care over these past seven years?”

It’s a question I could have spent all day answering. But when you’ve got 600+ eyes from the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County audience staring at you, and only a few seconds to answer, you’ve got to think fast and be concise.

Thankfully, it was a friendly crowd I’ve gotten to know well, and as Oregon’s largest health insurer, we’ve been at the forefront of many positive changes in service to our 790,000+ members. Every year I have the honor of speaking to the Southern Oregon business group, a trip I love because I get to hear directly from employers and individuals about what’s working—and what’s not working—about health care.

This year for my seventh consecutive appearance, I was honored to share the stage with Asante’s CEO Scott Kelly. Together, we talked about our evolving value-based partnership in our mutual quest to deliver more effective and affordable care to the local community.

Many of the points from the Chamber conversation came up later in the day in a Five on 5 interview with KOBI-TV’s Craig Smullin, which you can watch here:

Regence’s own Andrew Over also found time during the trip to visit Kennedy Elementary and read to children as part of our ongoing sponsorship of SMART: Start Making a Reader Today.

For more than 30 years, our Medford office has served Regence members across our four-state footprint with industry-leading customer service. We’re proud of these 250+ employees and look forward to continuing to serve the Southern Oregon community with the support of tremendous partners like Asante.