Dr. George reviews records from all sorts of different providers across Oregon. He has seen good records and terrible documentation that borders on negligence and potential malpractice. When records fail to meet the typical standard of care that he sees at most clinics, he will not hesitate to file complaints with the appropriate licensing boards.
Insurance fraud is rampant among users of electronic medical record systems. Many providers are documenting, by checking off boxes and such, that they performed physical examinations and more, when they never even touched the patient. Insurance companies rarely care as long as they aren’t losing too much money. They expect some fraud as a part of doing business; that’s the nature of healthcare in America today. And licensing boards rarely ever investigate any providers for such fraud because they know it is quite rampant. Who cares if it affects patient care? Wait . . . isn’t that one of their mandates; to protect the citizen-patients of Oregon?
There are two doctors in Roseburg whose employees were falsifying pain medication prescriptions for themselves and others. Did anyone care to report it when it was discovered? NO! It has been quietly covered up!
While the federal and state government believes that most things can be solved by throwing more money at it, the reality is that healthcare is NOT really improving in Oregon, especially NOT in Douglas County. I see medical providers (MDs, DOs, PAs, NPs, etc.) coming into the Roseburg area on a regular basis to work at the many federally funded clinics only to leave within the next year or two. I have some patients who have had their PCP changed multiple times within just a year or two. The administrative staff at these clinics will tell you that they didn’t like the area, etc. etc. and left. But in reality most of them just moved out of that clinic to another in the area. The problem is the ADMINISTRATION. Until that changes, NO real change will happen at these clinics. Once biased and inept leadership is in place to stifle any providers who “don’t tow their party line,” no real change can happen. Some of these clinics have had multiple turnovers not just in medical staffing, but also in support staff.
Here are the clinics that I call the “Revolving Door” clinics of Roseburg and the surrounding areas:
Aviva, formerly called Umpqua Community Health Center. They must be ashamed of their former name and care provided to patients because they have removed their previous name on all their patient records that have been printed since the name changed. That seems wrong, but of course, no one at the state or federal level cares. These older records get printed with an address but no name on them. They were Umpqua Community Health Center when the care was provided, and so it should be recorded as such on the legal records.
Umpqua Health, formerly called Umpqua Regional Medical Center. We have patients reporting that this clinic up and “closed” their one location and left them without a provider and no notice of such. In reality they relocated to a new office, but it sounds like they had a big turnover in providers. Failing to inform patients of such is a poor tactic that borders on patient abandonment. Shame on them!
South River Community Health Center. This clinic is owned by ADAPT, which is the major drug treatment center in Roseburg. Thus they will not prescribe pain medications and will consider almost anyone using pain medications to be an “addict” needing further attention. Be very careful with them.
The issues with providers staying and leaving is just as bad at the VA and to compound the issue is the fact that many of the VA providers can’t speak English well. It is a very common complaint among veterans.
Also note that each of these clinics is notorious at delaying record releases. They refuse to acknowledge receipt of faxed Release of Information (ROI) forms from our office on a regular basis. They use it as a tactic to say “We never received it,” so they can delay your records from being sent to us. We have started having patients take the ROIs directly to their clinics to be signed and copied and returned to us. That way we can verify that they have received it and have 30 days, per Oregon state law, to comply.
