Creating Healthy Individuals Through Innovative Systems

The Values We Stand For:

• Integrity, innovation and leadership are fundamental to everything we do.
• Family physicians are the foundation in building a caring, efficient healthcare system in cooperation with specialists and other providers.
• Quality relationships among patient, provider and employees are based on commitment, trust, respect and communication.
• Information and education empower both the patient and physician to make responsible healthcare decisions.
• Medical decisions are best made between the patient and provider.
• Osteopathic medicine creates opportunities for innovation in health care.
• Our employees' well being and professional development are essential to our success.

History of FamilyCare

Two physicians and our current President, Jeff Heatherington, created FamilyCare, Inc. in 1984. FamilyCare was originally designed as a managed care organization to provide health care to the Medicaid population under the 1983 Medicaid Managed Care Act. With the exception of Kaiser Permanente, FamilyCare is the oldest Medicaid Managed Care program in Oregon.

FamilyCare had two major operational objectives at its inception. The first was to provide an opportunity for physicians to successfully practice under a capitated payment system. FamilyCare was not the first to capitate primary care physicians but it was the first to capitate specialists in Oregon.

The second objective was to create a management system that left physicians and providers in control of managing their patients. In addition to the capitated payment system, FamilyCare also created a program of educating physicians with regard to their utilization patterns so that they could more effectively manage their own practices. The overall result is that FamilyCare has maintained a very successful operation that relies on a streamlined management system, compensates its providers at an extremely attractive rate, and allows the provider and patients to make medical decisions for themselves.

In 1988, FamilyCare purchased Evergreen Medical Systems, a Medicaid Managed Care program operated in Portland. In 1994, with the advent of the Oregon Health Plan, FamilyCare became a fully capitated health plan operating as an HMO. Once again, FamilyCare pioneered, in the area of capitated services, by becoming the first Oregon insurer to capitate hospitals. This completed the seamless system in most of our geographical areas, allowing providers to manage utilization among themselves without the case-by-case oversight of the health plan.

Our Medicaid program offers services in the Portland Metro area for Clackamas and Multnomah counties. In the Pendleton, Oregon area, we service Umatilla and Wheeler counties. In Southern Oregon we offer services in Josephine and parts of Jackson counties.

In 2005 FamilyCare Health Plans implemented the PremierCare Medicare Advantage products. This allowed FamilyCare, Inc. to support its DUAL population with the transition to the Medicare Prescription Drug Program and allowed us to enter into the Medicare Advantage Market. Our plan offers options in Clackamas, Clatsop, Morrow, Multnomah, Umatilla, & Washington counties in Oregon.