Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) received a $15,000 grant award from Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program supporting access to acupuncture care for low-income patients in the Portland metro area.
Thanks to Kaiser’s support, OCOM will provide low-income community members $15 acupuncture and Oriental medicine treatments for qualifying individuals. Enrollment in the program, Expanding Health Care Access to Low-Income Patients, begins now, with appointments starting January 3, 2017. Qualifying individuals will be eligible to enroll for five $15 visits between January and October 2017. OCOM’s affordable sliding scale fees of $25-$35 continue to apply for all patients in need of access to care.
OCOM is a 33-year-old nonprofit graduate institution that operates two Portland-area teaching clinics: one in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood and another in the Hollywood neighborhood of northeast Portland. OCOM’s Chinese medicine teaching clinics serve approximately 3,000 patients each year. As a member of the Coalition of Community Health Clinics, the college is committed to supplying a safety net of health care access for the underserved.
Analysis of patient survey data from 2015 grantees shows that those who receive at least five treatments at our clinics get better. Among low-income patients who received a course of five treatments, 84 percent reported having chronic conditions, with 98 percent then reporting that their conditions improved. Seventy-eight percent of grant recipients have some health insurance; among those, 84 percent are on OHP or Medicaid/Medicare. One hundred percent of patients reported they were “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their treatments. Thirty-two percent reported they did not use the emergency room due to access to health care at OCOM funded by this grant.
“The grant provides a great opportunity for Kaiser Permanente and OCOM to partner together,” says OCOM Trustee Charles Elder, MD, “The grant allows us to expand health care access to low-income members of our community by funding and providing high quality, evidence based integrative care.”
For additional information about the program is available by calling OCOM’s Patient Services Team: OCOM Clinic at 503-445-0950, or OCOM Hollywood Clinic at 503-281-1917. To apply for this program, download and complete the program's enrollment form.
OCOM’s mission is to transform health care by educating highly skilled and compassionate practitioners, providing exemplary patient care, and engaging in innovative research within a community of service and healing. Over 1,400 graduates practice, teach, and research Chinese medicine in 50 states and across the globe, and have provided an estimated 10 million treatments over the past 33 years. Additional information about our programs is available on our website: ocom.edu
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and nonprofit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 10 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia, including more than 540,000 medical and 250,000 dental members in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, dentists, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical and dental teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.
About Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit
Community Benefit connects Kaiser Permanente with the communities we serve, expanding our influence beyond our clinics and hospitals to create new and equal opportunities for everyone to live a long, healthy life. In 2015, we contributed more than $141 million toward healthier communities in the Northwest.
About Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM)
Founded in 1983, OCOM is a single-purpose nonprofit graduate school that offers two specialized degree programs: Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (MAcOM) and Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM). OCOM’s mission is to transform health care by educating highly skilled and compassionate practitioners, providing exemplary patient care, and engaging in innovative research within a community of service and healing. Our 1,402 graduates practice, teach and research Chinese medicine in 50 states and across the globe, and have provided an estimated 10 million treatments during the past 33 years. In 2012, OCOM relocated its campus and clinic to a LEED Gold certified academic, clinic and research facility in Old Town Chinatown.
