Polk County commissioners approve amended contract with PacificSource Community Solutions

Polk County commissioners approved Polk County contract number 25-34 with PacificSource Community Solutions during their April 9 meeting, formally extending the county’s coordination with the Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) through Dec. 31, 2026, and adopting reimbursement-rate adjustments that took effect Jan. 1, 2025.

The contract originally covered a five-year period that ended Dec. 31, 2024. County staff said the state’s CCO award process led PacificSource to extend the contract period by two years; the document now covers Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2026. “This is a significant contract,” the chair of the Polk County Board of Commissioners said during the public record discussion, adding that the board was not making “a $12,000,000 decision on a consent calendar.”

The nut of the item: the contract is one of the county’s main funding sources for behavioral health services in Polk and Marion counties and is delivered through a Coordinated Care Organization, the channel through which Medicaid behavioral-health payments flow in parts of Oregon. County staff said the final corrected version addresses typographical and boilerplate language errors discovered when PacificSource returned the document for signature; staff also said the county had continued to draw on the account while the signatures were being finalized.

County staff members summarized the technical changes: the extension length, and a modification to reimbursement rates that staff said have been in effect since Jan. 1, 2025. “They discovered the typographical errors, and it’s been back and forth trying to get the correct version signed by everyone,” a county staff member said. Another county staff member confirmed the contract amendment increases one of the reimbursement rates and that rate change has been effective since Jan. 1, 2025.

The board made a motion to approve the contract and passed it by voice vote. The motion as recorded in the meeting was “Approve Polk County contract number 25-34 with PacificSource Community Solutions.” The transcript records the passage by ayes on the record but does not list a roll-call tally.

Background and next steps: County staff said the CCO designation and contract terms are driven by state processes and that the county does not control whether PacificSource remains a CCO beyond the extended term. Staff also noted it is not unusual for signature and administrative delays to produce retroactive contract dates, and that the county continued to draw funds for services while awaiting a fully executed agreement.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to approve Polk County contract number 25-34 with PacificSource Community Solutions — approved by voice vote; exact roll-call tally not specified in the transcript.

Speakers quoted in this article spoke during the April 9 Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting and are recorded in the meeting transcript.