CareOregon President and CEO Eric C. Hunter joined Governor Tina Kotek, First Lady Aimee Kotek Wilson, behavioral health providers and community partners at the University of Oregon’s Ballmer Institute on May 7 for a bill signing ceremony focused on strengthening Oregon’s behavioral health workforce and expanding access to mental health and addiction services. 

During the ceremony, Governor Kotek signed several bills aimed at addressing workforce shortages, reducing barriers for behavioral health professionals and improving access to care.

The legislation signed will help:

• Streamline Medicaid credentialing so qualified workers can start serving patients sooner.
• Cut down on administrative burdens, so providers can spend more time focused on patient care.
• Improve workplace safety protections for behavioral health workers.
• Streamline background check processes, extending checks from two to three years and making background checks transferable across care settings.
• Expand the workforce and early intervention services by creating a new credential from the University of Oregon’s Ballmer Institute for behavioral health professionals trained to support youth and adolescents.
• Add safeguards for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to help protect users – especially minors – from potential harmful mental health outcomes.

Strengthening Oregon’s behavioral health workforce can help improve access to timely, coordinated and community-based care for our members. Supporting providers and reducing barriers to entering and remaining in the profession helps expand access to mental health and additional services across the state.

CareOregon is proud to support statewide efforts that improve access to behavioral health care, strengthen our provider workforce and help improve health outcomes for the communities we serve.