I am the managing physician of two addiction recovery clinics in Portland that serve about 800 Oregonians at any given time. Like many providers, I have sat nervously on the sidelines watching the dispute between FamilyCare and OHA play out, wondering how it would impact not only our clinic but the thousands of CCO clients struggling with opioid addiction. I shook my head in disbelief while reading last week’s coverage in the Lund Report, which seemed to suggest there would be little impact to patients or providers in the event FamilyCare dissolved. For us, nothing could be further from the truth.

That’s why I’ve decided it’s time to tell our story – along with the stories of hundreds of patients we serve, whose treatment would be destabilized by the closure of FamilyCare.

In March of 2016, Recovery Works NW had been operating for one year. At the time, we were treating roughly 200 patients for opioid dependence using a combination of traditional drug and alcohol counseling in addition to supportive medications like buprenorphine to relieve withdrawal symptoms and cravings. We only accepted commercial insurance or cash and were barely breaking even month to month. But we had developed a treatment model that worked well and we believed in the mission.

At that time, we were forced to turn away countless requests from patients who were members of Oregon Health Plans, not because we didn’t want to help these patients, but because outdated OHP reimbursement models covered only half of the cost of treatment. It left addicted patients struggling without access to modern therapies like Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT), forcing many of them into the world of daily-dispense methadone, expensive ER visits or inpatient treatment.

That changed when FamilyCare reached out to us in 2016. They had looked at the science and associated costs of addiction and decided that investing money in less expensive outpatient treatment models like ours would save them a significant amount of money in downstream expenses such as ER visits and ICU admissions. They seemed to appreciate our innovative approach and offered to reimburse our clinic with rates comparable to commercial insurance. We were thrilled – and so were our patients.

Our monthly intakes tripled. Instead of wishing we could reach our capacity, we were scrambling to increase it. Last December we expanded to a second clinic on the east side of Portland and have already outgrown that space. We now treat roughly 800 patients a month and are barely scratching the surface of Portland’s opioid crisis.

For our patients who are FamilyCare members, this has meant new-found stability, like the ability to parent or hold down a job. We have patients who were once at risk of homelessness but are now secure. And the only reason for that is they hold coverage through FamilyCare rather than a different CCO that doesn’t allow them to access our clinic.

There is no doubt that our relationship with FamilyCare has spearheaded a multitude of efforts around combating Oregon’s opioid crisis. As our clinic grows, we are focused on training new providers and are quickly becoming an education center. We have partnered with University of Portland’s Nurse Practitioner program to train NP students in MAT. Next summer, we will begin funding a full-time fellow from OHSU’s Addiction Medicine program. These pilot programs have the potential to revolutionize Oregon’s addiction and recovery workforce, and I view them as a direct result of FamilyCare’s innovative leadership and reimbursement model.

Recent reports that FamilyCare may shut down have us very concerned. If that were to happen, the expansion of our east side office would likely have to go on hold. Approximately 350 of our patients would have to find a new CCO that we cannot currently accept – limiting our ability to serve them and risking their fragile sobriety. Accepting these patients at HealthShare’s current rates is not an option – our clinic would not be able to stay afloat. And potentially worst of all, the emerging partnerships we’ve developed to scale and combat the opioid epidemic would have to be placed on hold at the exact moment Oregon needs them most.

Bryan Schwartz is managing partner and physician at Recovery Works Northwest, a provider of opioid addiction and recovery services in Portland.