Murmurs: Counties Sue State Over Distribution of Measure 110 Funds

COUNTIES SUE STATE OVER DISTRIBUTION OF MEASURE 110 FUNDS: Two of the state’s largest counties, Clackamas and Washington, filed a petition Oct. 14 asking the Oregon Court of Appeals to review the formula with which the state is distributing over $420 million in Measure 110 funds, mainly from cannabis taxes, to counties. The formula, created by the Measure 110 Oversight and Accountability Council, is also being used to distribute funding for new deflection programs. The complex formula takes into account a variety of factors beyond just population, such as “rurality” and poverty level, resulting in some counties feeling like they’ve been slighted. “Clackamas County is expected to serve the third-largest county by population in Oregon. Yet, the newly adopted formula puts Clackamas seventh,” Clackamas County Chair Tootie Smith wrote to the council in an August letter. OHA declined to give Washington County a copy of the spreadsheet “in a format that would show the equations actually used in the formula,” the petition says. It also accuses the state of skirting required rulemaking practices, which “has denied the [counties] and others the ability to participate in [a rulemaking] process and have its concerns about inequities in the grant distribution formula heard and possibly addressed,” the petition says.

STATE HEALTH CARE REGULATORS FLEX MUSCLE: The Oregon Health Authority has approved the sale of a chain of home health and hospice agencies, owned by Hillsboro-based Signature Healthcare, to an Idaho holding company. But the deal comes with strings attached. The deal is being completed in six parts, divided by geography. In some of those places, “OHA has concerns about price/cost increases resulting from the transaction,” read the notices published Oct. 14. In those places, OHA ruled, Pennant Group Inc. must continue accepting Medicaid patients for five years and not leverage its increased market share by offering insurance companies all-or-nothing terms. The deal was reviewed by Health Care Market Oversight, a new program created to keep consolidation in the health care industry from resulting in increased prices and worsening care. The program is just beginning to flex its muscle, and its moves are being closely watched. The program’s biggest test, whether to approve the blockbuster purchase of Legacy Health by Oregon Health & Science University, still lies ahead.

GLUT OF SHROOM GUIDES LEADS TO HOLD ON TRAINING: Synaptic Institute, one of two dozen schools in Oregon that train facilitators to lead psychedelic trips, says it is suspending its psilocybin training program because a glut of guides has made potential students wary of pursuing certification to do the work. “There’s a lot of underemployed facilitators right now,” Synaptic founder Matthew Hicks said in an email to his mailing list earlier this month. “So it’s not necessarily the best financial investment to spend eight, nine, $10,000, becoming a facilitator if you’re dependent on income from doing that work.” Psilocybin trips led by trained guides became legal in Oregon after voters passed Measure 109 in 2020. Since then, 417 guides have completed training at the schools and applied for licenses, and 356 have been approved, according to the Oregon Health Authority, which administers the psilocybin program. Synaptic will continue training licensed health care professionals who want to administer ketamine, Hicks said. Its clinic, where patients receive acupuncture, naturopathic mental health care, and therapy with ketamine and psilocybin, will also remain open. “It is a little heavy-hearted that we let the psilocybin program go,” Hicks said, “but we are confident that it is the right decision, and it’ll enable us to better fulfill our mission as a whole.”

BEAVERTON REHAB CLOSES AMID SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST FOUNDER: Taylor Made Retreat, an addiction rehab program that has operated out of a repurposed Beaverton mansion since 2018, shut down earlier this summer amid sexual misconduct allegations against its manager and founder, former concert promoter Lowell MacGregor. A lawsuit filed yesterday in Multnomah County Circuit Court by a former client accuses MacGregor of “manipulating and sexually grooming her.” It accuses MacGregor of sexual battery and his nonprofit of negligence and fraud, and demands $4.5 million. MacGregor, in a series of emails with WW, said he was shocked by the allegations and called the situation “a nightmare.” MacGregor previously led a successful career as a music promoter—he booked shows for the Roseland and later toured with Pearl Jam in the early 2000s—before pivoting to focus on Christian festivals and addiction recovery. The complaint also names Taylor Made Retreat as a defendant, alleging the nonprofit was negligent for not preventing the assaults. “Taylor Made knew or, at a minimum, recklessly disregarded the truth that MacGregor was dangerous to female patients,” it says.