More physicians leave Oregon Medical Group, deepening primary care crisis

Chris Cunningham spent nearly a quarter-century with the same physician at Oregon Medical Group. Then she got a letter.

“He wrote me and my late husband a letter saying that he was retiring,” she said.

That letter came shortly after Optum, a national health care company and division of UnitedHealth Group, acquired Oregon Medical Group in 2020. Since then, people like Cunningham have received notices from the group saying that their physician has left the practice — sometimes because of retirement, sometimes for personal reasons, and sometimes without an explanation at all. 

Such letters have come in batches to mailboxes and inboxes over the past few years. Lookout Eugene-Springfield has received copies of letters, including those dated as recently as June 30, delivered in mid-July, about physicians leaving their practice.

In addition, Oregon Medical Group also sent emails to patients July 14 regarding OB-GYN doctors leaving the practice, many of whom provide preventative care.

Oregon Medical Group, or OMG — originally founded and owned by physicians in Lane County — has not disclosed how many patients it has discharged or how many doctors have left. When asked by Lookout Eugene-Springfield, an Optum spokesperson did not provide an estimate or say how many letters have been sent to patients this year.

Advocates and elected officials believe that thousands of patients in Eugene and Springfield have been left in the lurch in recent years — forced to find new doctors on their own and wait months for appointments. They say a policy loophole has allowed corporate medicine to prioritize profit over patients while restricting doctors from speaking out about the ethical concerns they face.

Many patients went from seeing a familiar face for decades to seeing a rotating cast of providers. Cunningham said one of the new doctors she and her husband saw was compassionate — but lacked the specific skills needed to deliver the care they needed. Her husband had cancer.

“It just felt really awful to be in that situation where you really wanted either some answers or some very specific kinds of care,” Cunningham said. “I just have great concerns about how people are functioning now, with a very confusing health care system that is going to get worse, I’m afraid, with the reductions in Medicaid.” 

Her concerns echo across Eugene and Springfield, where, over the five years since the Optum buyout, already strained emergency departments have seen patient volumes surge as people struggle to find consistent primary care.

Meanwhile, a movement is building to return power to patients and doctors, supported by a new state law passed partially in response to the Oregon Medical Group takeover.

‘Canaries in a coal mine’ 

Gov. Tina Kotek quietly signed Senate Bill 951 into law June 9, setting the strongest regulations on private and corporate control of medical practices in the nation. 

The law updates Oregon’s long-standing “corporate practice of medicine” doctrine, originally established in 1947 to keep medical decisions in the hands of licensed professionals. 

It closes a loophole that has allowed private equity firms and corporations to appear compliant with the practice by naming physicians — sometimes with limited or no authority — as clinic owners on paper, said state Rep. Lisa Fragala, D-Eugene. Optum maintains the clinics it operates, including the Oregon Medical Group, are physician-led. 

Expected to take at least three years to fully take effect, the law also aims to ban noncompete clauses, which have made it harder for independent clinics to launch.

Fragala co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, who has been focused on curbing corporate interference in health care since the 2024 session. At the time, Bowman told KLCC that his policy team estimated more than 10,000 patients in the Eugene area no longer had a primary care doctor.

“What happened in Eugene is that thousands of patients lost access to health care, and they experienced it in a way that was very dehumanizing,” Fragala said, referring to letters and people who made phone calls only to learn they were no longer patients. 

“Cities like Eugene and Corvallis were the canaries in the coal mine,” Fragala said. 

Last year, more than 350 people and organizations submitted public comments to the Oregon Health Authority, many expressing alarm over UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of The Corvallis Clinic, which — like OMG — was founded and owned by doctors. Among them was Bruce Thomson, a retired family doctor and member of Health Care for All Oregon.

His public comments reflected growing concern from watching Eugene and Springfield as early examples of a worsening health care crisis. The Oregon Health Authority approved Optum’s acquisition of The Corvallis Clinic under an emergency process, a move typically reserved for threats to public health.

“The Corvallis Clinic is dissolving as we speak, with physicians leaving here in Corvallis,” Thomson told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “So it’s following the same pattern, and we knew it would, after the Optum-OMG fiasco. We knew it would follow the same pattern, because these national organizations have no sympathy with the community.”

While corporations and industry trade groups have made broad statements about supporting community care, their testimony on the new law focused largely on protecting technology and investment. In a letter, the tech industry group Chamber of Progress argued that the law would stifle innovation — such as tools that improve workflows and patient access — and deter corporate investment when government funding is uncertain.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield requested an interview with Optum. Spokesperson Karrie Spitzer sent a written response: 

“We are a physician-led, local care delivery organization that invests in the long-term success of our practices so they can provide whole-person care for our patients. To help address the nationwide clinician shortage, specifically as it relates to Oregon, Optum has been investing resources to support Oregon Medical Group’s recruitment of physicians and advanced practice clinicians (APCs) and are onboarding a substantial number of clinicians this year. We are also increasing access for Oregon patients through telehealth and opening new service lines, such as our new urgent care in Eugene, greatly expanding care options for the community. Whenever physicians depart, we try to offer patients other options within OMG or cooperate with their transition to another community provider, consistent with state law.”

While urgent care clinics are steps in the right direction, critics have told Lookout Eugene-Springfield, they don’t address underlying issues such as access to primary care physicians.

A different health care model 

The fallout from Optum’s acquisition of Oregon Medical Group has added to the systemic barriers to care shaped by both local conditions and national forces — a crisis of cost, access and quality, Fragala said.

Insurance also often dictates how care is delivered and what services are covered. This further limits access and flexibility for both patients and doctors — who, according to studies shared by the American Academy of Family Physicians, spend nearly 20% of their time on administrative tasks.

More paperwork is on the horizon. A recently passed federal tax and spending bill will require many Medicaid recipients — including nearly 130,000 people in Lane County — to submit monthly proof of work, school or volunteer hours beginning in 2027 or risk losing coverage.

For physicians and advocates like Dr. Nicholas Jones, serious health care reform is long overdue. After leaving Oregon Medical Group, he opened a clinic where he’s working to make that change happen — starting at the ground level of a strip mall in southwest Eugene. 

“I built the practice as my own, like a little socialized health care experiment,” he said. 

Jones’ practice, called Clear Health Direct Primary Care, is “direct” in both access and payment. Patients can see him at his brick-and-mortar clinic, communicate via text or email, or even schedule home visits. The clinic operates outside the traditional insurance model, charging a flat monthly fee of $99, like a subscription service. 

“Everybody pays the same whether you’re undocumented, uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, commercial, 100 bucks a month for every adult,” he said. “No matter your age, gender, race, political, identity, whatever.” Jones said the new approach has reduced administrative burdens.

A commonly cited figure is that doctors see about 2,500 patients a year — a load that contributes to burnout. Jones now works with about 600 patients, and recently hired a new physician to expand the practice.

“You have complete control over your schedule, your template, your availability, the patients and all that sort of stuff,” Jones said. 

Keeping control himself, rather than having corporate leaders in control, has allowed his practice to renew a focus on community-based care that keeps people healthy — people like Cunningham. She began searching for a new provider after OMG told her it would take eight months to schedule an appointment. She found Clear Health instead. 

Cunningham believes Jones’ philosophy reflects what the health care system needs to embrace: putting wellness before wallets. Care shouldn’t be an occasional transaction, she said, but an ongoing relationship built on trust. 

“[The system] is going to falter,” she said. “You have to take care of the whole person.”