From 1993 to 1996, the State of Oregon, Department of Insurance and Finance piloted programs to test an untried approach to contain medical costs, called "24-hour coverage."

Twenty-four hour coverage uses a single health policy to cover employees' injuries or illnesses, whether or not they were work related.

Key Results:

• Oregon successfully launched four pilots of modified 24-hour coverage plans, but changes during the grant led to extremely low enrollment that prevented the completion of a proposed evaluation. These changes included:
  • Significant decreases in workers' compensation premiums.
  • The repeal of Oregon's law mandating employer-sponsored health insurance.
  • The failure of President Clinton's health care reform proposal.

Despite this, the project:

• Transformed an imprecise concept, "24-hour coverage," into a real-world demonstration.
• Accelerated the process of cooperation between group health and workers' compensation insurers.
• Accelerated the development of managed care in workers' compensation.
• Facilitated negotiations between workers' compensation insurers and managed care networks to adopt a unified fee schedule for all medical services.

Key Findings:

• Coordinating the medical care for workers' compensation and health insurance is feasible.
• Due to political and economic changes during the grant, there was not viable interest in integrating medical care for group health insurance and workers' compensation into a single insurance policy.
• There is modest interest in coordinating group health insurance and medical coverage for workers' compensation as long as two separate insurance policies remain in effect.