Oregon Mental & Behavioral Health Practices Must be Counted
Survey due date Nov. 30, 2026
Oregon is designing a statewide “universal” health plan that would fundamentally alter health care financing, clinician reimbursement and patient access. Critical decisions are being made without basic data on independent solo or group practices and the owned mental and behavioral health practices which provide much of Oregon’s care. The purpose of this survey to fill the gaps.
The state can count professional licenses and names appearing in insurance directories.
Decision makers do not know:
how many clinicians don’t participate with insurance,
how many clinicians accept only one or two payers,
how many clinicians are not accepting new patients,
what proportion of insured patients pay privately for services.
Information matters because having insurance is not the same as having access to treatment or assessment services. Reimbursement rates, credentialing, documentation requirements, utilization review, audits, administrative burden, and other payer practices determine whether independent professionals, small practices or large owned practices decide to participate with insurance networks.
Oregon's existing parity law addresses reimbursement methodology, network adequacy, out-of-network care, utilization management, medical necessity, billing practices, and access. But Oregon does not have an objective minimum reimbursement standard designed to ensure that payment is adequate to attract and retain a sufficient mental and behavioral-health network.
Other states are beginning to address this connection directly. Illinois has explicitly connected reimbursement with provider participation, network adequacy, out-of-network use, patients' out-of-pocket costs, and actual access to care. Its new law also addresses issues particularly important to psychotherapy practices, including CPT 90837 documentation, auditing, provider contracting and credentialing timelines.
Why you are asked to complete the survey
IMHPA intends to bring the experience of independent clinicians, clinician-owned practices, clinics, and facilities into Oregon's health-policy discussion. The Universal Health Plan Governance Board (UHPGB) is preparing recommendations for the legislature even though major questions remain unanswered about parity, reimbursement, patient access, and future practice.
Evidence is needed, not assumptions. Survey answers needed by November 30, 2026!
Your survey response will help document the ways Oregon's independent and owned mental and behavioral health system works, who provides care, who contracts with payers, what makes participation workable or unworkable, and what changes would increase, or decrease, your ability to continue providing care.
Whether your practice accepts several insurance plans, participates selectively, operates entirely outside insurance networks, or you manage a clinician-owned practice or facility, your experience is part of the information the UHPGB and legislature need before financing decisions are made that affect the future of mental and behavioral health services. Please complete the survey.
Please share this page and the appropriate link with someone who has not learned about it.
Thank you
Independent Mental Health Practices Alliance (IMHPA) & Mentor Research Institute (MRI)
Link to respond to the private practices survey: https://forms.gle/Z4sVLitMVJqw6fLv7
Link to respond to the owned practices survey: https://forms.gle/rM4ARELhKid7xDZ98