SALEM, OR — Cover Oregon has offered retention bonuses, totaling up to $650,000, to employees who stick around through a tumultuous time for the struggling health insurance exchange. Cover Oregon Executive Director Clyde Hamstreet said the bonuses are necessary to avoid losing staff with expertise in key technology and health-policy issues.
The organization has been struggling from the loss of 27 staff members since April to layoffs and voluntary departures. Most of Cover Oregon's 163 employees can earn two weeks of pay if they stay through March 15th, when the organization expects to wrap up its next enrollment push that ends a month earlier. About three dozen employees deemed essential qualify for larger bonuses: 21 can earn one month of pay, 15 can get two months of pay and two people are eligible for three months.
Cover Oregon's much-touted website never fully launched to the general public, requiring workers to carry much of the weight for enrolling people in private health insurance and the state Medicaid program. The state has decided to give up running its own website and is in the process of building the technical infrastructure to transition to a website run by the federal government. Workers are also needed to help customers who have a change in circumstances, like a new address, birth of a child or a new job, and to process commissions for 1,200 insurance agents.
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