News and press releases

PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 21, 2021) – CareOregon is proud to announce that both the organization and its CEO Eric C. Hunter are being recognized by Modern Healthcare for leadership in diversity. CareOregon was named one of just 10 healthcare organizations nationally to receive this recognition. Likewise, CEO Eric C. Hunter was named one of the Top 25 Diversity Leaders in Healthcare.

“I am humbled to be recognized alongside such a diverse group of leaders in healthcare,” said Eric. C Hunter, CareOregon CEO. “As an organization serving 500,000 Oregonians on the Oregon Health Plan, ensuring equitable access to care and services is core to our mission. This recognition is testament to the work our teams do every day to help Oregonians get connected to the services they need to lead healthy, productive lives.”

The profiles of all the honorees and honored organizations are featured in the September 20 print issue of MH magazine and at ModernHealthcare.com/top-diversity-leaders.

In the past two years, CareOregon has made significant investments in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including:

• Creating a new C-level position responsible to spearheading the organization’s Equity, Diversity & Inclusion work and ensuring that EDI is central to all decision making
• Launching Employee Resource Groups to increase staff sense of belonging
• Enhancing data analysis and reporting efforts to capture key demographic information and reveal patterns of health inequities—positioning the organization to respond in meaningful, culturally sensitive ways
• Continuing to focus community investments to support culturally specific organizations and help strengthen community fabric supporting our members
• Partnering to help launch the Connect Oregon-Unite Us platform to enable medical providers to make and track social service referrals
• Working to integrate principals of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion into all aspects of care delivery

Modern Healthcare’s Top Diversity Leaders award honors the top healthcare executives from diverse backgrounds and the organizations influencing the policy and care delivery models across the country. In doing so, they are also highlighting the continued need to nurture diversity in their organizations.

“Healthcare organizations widely promote their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts when they're first announced. But it's more important to track success and make sure those initiatives deliver on the long-term results the companies and communities they serve expect. This year, we increased the cadence of our diversity recognition program and expanded eligibility to include companies as a whole, as well as individuals,” said Modern Healthcare editor, Aurora Aguilar. “The 2021 class of Top Diversity Leaders lead the pack in healthcare. These are people and companies that exemplify ‘walking the walk.’ Congratulations to all of our honorees and thank you for the hard work you do on the important issue of inclusivity.”

“At CareOregon, we believe that equity, diversity and inclusion efforts aren’t something that can be relegated to a specific team or department,” said Hunter. “As we work to move the needle on health equity issues, we are employing a more holistic approach. Equity, diversity and inclusion work gives us a lens to think about what problems we need to solve for our members and how to approach this in a collaborative way.”

For information on the Top Diversity Leaders Awards Program, contact:

Jodi Sniegocki Kerhulas

jsniegocki@modernhealthcare.com

312.649.5459

For information about CareOregon, contact:

Becca Thomsen, CareOregon

thomsenb@careoregon.org

503.416.3756