Here's the background info you need to make an informed decision about this:

 

Since the bill came up in January this year, there was a public hearing on 2/25/25 where 35 people testified. Of those 35 people, 3 opposed the measure- 1 of which was representing the big insurance company of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield,  a company that posted 4.8% profits on 2.83 billion in revenue for 2024. (That’s more than 135 million dollars in profit, by the way)

Here are the notable opposition reasons from 2/25/25

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s reasoning:
They say that paying providers equally would “undermine [their] ability to account for a provider’s background, licensing, and qualifications in setting [their] reimbursement rates” despite the fact that I actually have to provide all of that information to apply for their credentialling process- and they ignored components of my background, like the 3 year residency I completed. They also state that that paying providers equitably will increase costs and impact reimbursement rates. As far as costs go, I would argue that posting more than a hundred million in profit off of your health just last year shows that they have no concern around this.

The other 2 opposition testimonies from 2/25/25 include a retired doctor who has profited from the inequity and a family practice doctor who thinks that I don’t have experience in managing a wide variety of conditions because I am a naturopath. I think my previous primary care record of treating a wide variety of conditions stands for itself- everything from preventative well visits to acute fevers, coughs and injuries; to removing foreign objects from people; to managing chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and low thyroid function; to rare and/or genetic conditions so uncommon that I can’t mention which ones they are without potentially violating HIPAA. I even have prevet/zookeeping experience in treating wild and domestic animals. I am confident that I have seen an adequate amount of variety in health to be able to help- and equally confident that I’ve met MDs and DOs as providers on my own health journey who have not seen the full amount of variety that I have.


There was additionally a public hearing on 2/27/25 where 285 people testified. Of those 285, 6 people opposed and 1 was neutral. Of the opposition, the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon, the Oregon Medical Association, and the Providence insurance agency are notable.

 

Here are the notable oppositions from the 2/27/25 testimonies:

The Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon oppose the bill stating that reimbursement should be commensurate with training (Which, if you recall, I do have a 4 year undergraduate degree, a 5 year naturopathic medicine degree, and a 3 year residency completed under one of their own DOs, bringing my total time involved in training to 12 years) and they state that they aren’t opposed to strengthening payments for primary care providers- just opposed reimbursement rates being tied together. I continue to note that Nurse Practitioners and Physician Asssistants also have different training levels, and yet are compensated at an equitable rate, so that argument doesn’t really hold as 2 other professions have already been included in this.

The Oregon Medical Association’s opposition to HB 3494 is centered around differences in provider training as well, without reference to the fact that PAs and NPs already have pay parity. They suggest that equitable reimbursement rates “could lead to patient confusion and potential safety concerns”. Without getting too far into it, the doctor who sent me home from the Emergency Room to die of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy was an MD. I personally have suffered significant health impacts that were directly caused by MDs, multiple times throughout my life- to the extent that I was included in class action lawsuits as a child around non-FDA approved medication use. Beyond just the personal amount of bias I have about this, consider these MDs as well:

• Dr. Paul Anderson, MD is the reason Oregon has had a tetanus case in the last 30 years.
• Shawn Baker, MD is out there advocating for an all meat diet without any scurvy precautions.
• Dr. Oz, MD, is literally saying that uninsured people “don’t have the right to health” and has spent millions settling a class action suit about misrepresenting how effective weight loss pills were.

With all due respect, the OMA would be better served looking at problems within their own ranks than fear mongering about potential safety concerns outside of them.

Providence, a company that owns the soccer stadium that the Timbers play at and who recently made the news for how poorly they support their nursing staff also opposes pay parity.  The giant hospital system/health insurance company posted $488 million in investment income and reported unrestricted cash and investments of $8.17 billion as of 12/31/24. . Their opposition to HB 3494 is focused on NDs having 13.6% lower acuity rates (which is not something I’ve heard from my conventional colleagues about my specific panel when collaborating on complex care) as well as 30% lower guideline based cancer screening rates. 

The cancer screening metrics are also something that Providence facilitates by rejecting orders from NDs; counting data from EMRs only in specific ways that exclude many ways of documenting screening, and in changing their requirements in ways that punish community clinics. I know clinics that employ people purely to deal with the metrics nightmare that insurance uses to justify not paying providers.
Providence additionally notes that if NDs were compensated equitably, aspiring providers would pursue an ND instead of an MD degree, which would reduce the number of MDs available in the community. As their opposition fails to note that this pay parity has already occurred for NPs and PAs, it’s again an inaccurate argument. Most of the recent students I have had have gone to PA school, and the impending shortage of MDs has been known since the 1970s with no significant action to address this. We need healthcare providers, and we need them now.
Providence also had the audacity to state that naturopathic operating costs are lower, somehow stating that NDs don’t have malpractice insurance, pay for licensing fees, etc. I am unsure where this information is sourced from as I’ve definitely been paying for malpractice insurance, license renewal fees, DEA renewal fees, etc.

Providence is sitting on more than one billion, with a B, in cash and investments per their own disclosures.  Providence has been written up by The New York Times because they were quite literally extorting patients.
They could do less extortion if they were concerned about operating costs.

The other 3 opposition opinions include a person from Milwaukie who simply stated “Oppose”, a DO who states inaccurately that Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants are compensated at lower rates, as well as implies that doctors like me cannot fully manage health care for people and that doctors like me do not follow up in a timely manner from hospitalizations, and one person who wrote oppose but who’s message supported pay parity fully.

The neutral testimony links to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services  Organizational Chart, which when searched has no mention of naturopathic doctors, naturopathy, or any Oregon reimbursements.

Since then, the legislative revenue office has prepared governmental impact statements, of which the revenue impact statement specifically says that there is no expected financial impact to state and local revenues analyzed by their office; and the fiscal impact shows less than 0.1% of the OHA biennial budget will be impacted.

HB 3494 moved through the Behavioral Health and Health Care committee with the recommendation that it should pass, and it is now in the Joint Committee of Ways and Means hands- with no currently scheduled committee meetings or floor sessions to get it through.

 

To sum up, 320 people testified about this, and of those people, only 8 people recommended against it. And of those 8 people, 2 represented health care companies who currently refuse to pay equitable rates despite having the resources to do so, and 2 represented professional organizations who have presented an argument that doesn't make sense because if the reimbursement rates truly were based on training time, the nurse practitioners and physician's assistants who already have pay parity would have their compensation revoked. No one wants this. The naturopathic community simply wants insurance to comply with existing Oregon standards.

 

Last year, the same bill was introduced and passed through the subcommittee- and then died, because the insurance companies who pay NDs have a lot of money that they don’t want to pay us, and because our MD and DO community refuse to extend the same amount of courtesy to NDs as they have to Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners. There was not enough public pressure to keep the bill going.

Now that you’re mostly caught up on the drama- here’s what you can do (and yeah, this is a problem we can actually fix! )

Public attention makes a huge difference for this local policy decision. Bring more attention to this issue by:

1. Writing or calling all of the members of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. You can get all that info here: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Committees/JWM/Overview or you can use the form letters that take literal seconds to send from  the national advocacy group: . You can also use My Reps, or Common Cause, or 5 Calls   to help make this easy. 

 Remember that your representatives are paid to listen to you, and you are allowed to tell them about any frustrations you have with the current system at any point.

2. Spread the tea. Tell people in your life what is happening with this messed up insurance situation- with links so they can advocate against greedy insurance companies too.

 

3. Let me know what you hear back. Did they respond? Did your elected officials pay attention to you? Did they have anything interesting to say? Did you hear a timeline? I want to know! Tell me in the comments, message me on instagram or through the portal, send me a text at the clinic phone number 503-461-6461. The more we work together, the more we all get done!