Top 5 most popular Regence blog posts of 2019 – measles, value-based care, opioids, and more

From how to protect against measles, to how we’re supporting our members’ mental health care, these are the posts that stood out on the Regence blog this year.
Main photo: Customer Service professionals in Tacoma, WA, who completed Mental Health First Aid training in April 2019.
- Measles: Washington declares state of emergency; how you can protect yourself and your children, February 2019
More than 1,200 measles cases were reported in 31 states in 2019, according to the CDC – the highest annual number since 1992. Washington and Oregon were two of the first states to report outbreaks this year.
“Measles is both highly contagious and very much preventable,” said Dr. Cheryl Pegus, M.D., M.P.H, senior vice president of healthcare services and chief medical officer at Regence. “Members can help protect themselves, their loved ones, and their neighbors by staying up to date with vaccinations.”
- Regence unveils value-based payments for Episodes of Care, November 2019
About 40 percent of Regence’s total payments across its four-state footprint of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah are now in “value-based” arrangements. This means Regence and healthcare providers collaborate with shared data, resources and expertise to drive high-value care that improves cost and quality for patients. Providers are rewarded to look at the full end-to-end continuum of care.
- Oregon’s opioid epidemic: how we can push back together, October 2019
Opioid misuse continues to be a national public health crisis. Read on to learn more about how we’re pushing back on this national health crisis through our prescribing practices and policies, community partner relationships and support of our members.
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“Mental Health First Aid is designed to arm anyone at any knowledge level with the skills they need to respond to mental health issues and crises,” said Aaron Murphy, a Regence customer service trainer and Mental Health First Aid instructor. “By educating ourselves through the training and conversing openly around these topics, we can stomp out the stigma that is still so closely tied to the mental health conversation.”