OHA outlines remaining $262 million gap, workforce needs in public health modernization briefing

Oregon Health Authority Public Health Director Naomi Adlin Biggs told the Joint Interim Subcommittee on Human Services on April 21 that the state’s public health modernization program faces a roughly $262.1 million shortfall to fully implement the foundational programs and capabilities set out under Oregon’s modernization framework.

The gap means that while recent biennial investments have funded hundreds of local positions and new programs for tribes and community-based organizations, state officials say more sustained and targeted funding will be required to realize the statutory model enacted in 2015 and the goals in the public health accountability metrics.

Biggs opened the agency’s informational presentation by identifying herself: “For the record, my name is Naomi Adlin Biggs and I’m the Public Health Director at Oregon Health Authority.” She summarized the public health modernization framework as a statewide approach to ensure core governmental public health functions across four foundational program areas and related capabilities, and said, “Public health modernization is not a single program. It’s a comprehensive approach to public health that uses programs and capabilities to bring together governmental and non‑governmental resources and partners.”

Key figures provided in the briefing

- State general fund investment: $112,200,000 for the 2023–25 biennium (OHA figure reported in the hearing). - Local public health authority (LPHA) allocations in the current biennium: $50,350,000. - Funding to federally recognized tribes and the urban Indian health program in 2023–25: $9,700,000 (eight of nine tribes and the urban…