Lane County officials review Community Health Centers’ $8.4 million projected gap, outline cuts and recovery plan

Lane County health officials presented an update to the Board of County Commissioners on April 23, 2025, saying the county’s Community Health Centers (CHC) are projecting an $8.4 million operating deficit for the current fiscal year but outlined steps intended to return the clinics toward sustainability next year.

The presentation explained why the CHC entered a deficit position and what county staff are doing to correct it, including trimming ancillary services, cutting vacant positions, reducing use of expensive temporary providers and seeking higher capitation payments from local coordinated care organizations (CCOs). The presentation also flagged federal funding uncertainty — including possible changes to the 340B program and draft HHS budget recommendations — as a key downside risk to recovery.

Lane County Health and Human Services Director Ed Gray set the context by describing several near-simultaneous developments last year: the announced closure of Eugene’s hospital campus operated by PeaceHealth, an Optum acquisition that led many Oregon Medical Group providers to seek new employers, and the county’s need to replace an electronic health record system that no longer met federal meaningful-use requirements. "We are required to meet meaningful use," Gray told commissioners, and those combined factors prompted the county to open new access points and hire providers rapidly to avoid a further access collapse.

Those rapid responses included opening the West Eleventh Rapid Access clinic in July 2024 (located near the West Eleventh Fred Meyer) and bringing the long-planned South Lane clinic online in late September 2024. County staff said West Eleventh saw more than 2,000 patient visits from January through March 2025; South Lane saw about 1,200 visits in the same period (roughly 400 per…