PA Specialist Corner: House Resolution 1 and How it Affects OHP
Important changes are coming to the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) as a result of House Resolution 1 (HR1), also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a federal budget bill passed in July 2025. HR1 reduces federal Medicaid funding and requires states to make changes to how Medicaid programs are administered.
In Oregon, Medicaid is provided through OHP. OHP is important to many customers of Community Pathways because it covers both health insurance and developmental disability (DD) services they receive through Community Pathways and rely on every day. Understanding these upcoming changes will be important for maintaining access to both healthcare and essential services.
How will changes affect Community Pathways customers?
Because of the coming changes, most OHP members will need to renew their Medicaid more often than they do now. Many adults will need to renew every six months, and all OHP members will need to renew at least every 12 months. How often renewal is required depends on the OHP member's age and the type of Medicaid program they are accessing.
Some Medicaid programs will also have work activity rules. Because of this, some OHP members will need to participate in work, volunteering, education, or job training. If someone can't work because of a disability, they may qualify for an exemption.
When are these changes happening?
Work activity rules will begin on January 1, 2027. More frequent renewals will likely also begin in 2027. Some timelines are still being worked out with the federal government.
What you can do:
It is important to keep your contact information up to date and to respond to OHP letters sent by the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS).
Contact your Personal Agent if you receive a letter from OHP or ODHS. Thanks to increased collaboration, Personal Agents and Medicaid Assisters at Community Pathways can access information about Medicaid renewals. We can help communicate with eligibility specialists at ODHS to find out what is required and to help get renewals processed.
Written by Christine Xthona, Personal Agent (PA) Specialist at Community Pathways
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Our PA Specialists will try there best to respond to the questions we get by sharing helpful information and resources in an upcoming blog post. Thank you!