Arrival of AC units for at-risk residents delayed amid summer heat

Last year’s heat dome claimed nearly 100 lives in Oregon as temperature records shattered throughout the state and the Pacific Northwest. The deaths prompted Oregon lawmakers earlier this year to allocate $5 million to the Oregon Health Authority to purchase and distribute air conditioning units to at-risk, low-income Oregonians who get their health care through public plans like Medicare. But as the Salem Statesman Journal reports, at the start of last week’s heat wave, only a third of the 3,000 units the Oregon Health Authority told lawmakers it would purchase had arrived. The agency was also unable to specify how many units were actually delivered directly to residents or through community-based organizations. Salem Statesman Journal reporter Claire Withycombe joins us to talk about the reasons for the delay.

Note: The following transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. We start today with the state of Oregon’s slow distribution of free AC units. Last summer, more than 100 people died from heat exposure. In response, Oregon lawmakers gave the state health authority $5 million to buy AC units for low income Oregonians who get their health care through government programs like the Oregon Health Plan. OHA officials told lawmakers in June that they would have 3,000 units on hand by the end of that month. Well it’s August now, and only 1,000 have left the state warehouse. Claire Withycombe has been writing about this for the Salem Statesman Journal. She joins us now with more details. Welcome to the show.

Claire Withycombe: Thanks Dave. Thanks for having me.

Miller: Can you give us a sense for the kind of direction that lawmakers gave to the Oregon Health Authority?

Withycombe: In this year’s legislative session lawmakers passed a bill, Senate Bill 1536, that was intended to help Oregon address the rising temperatures in our state. Part of that was to have the Oregon Health Authority purchase air conditioners to prevent, as you said, the number of deaths that we saw last summer from heat exposure. Lawmakers said during legislative hearings earlier this year that the intention was to try to prevent some of the suffering that we saw last year.

Miller: Was there a certain number of Oregonians who were supposed to benefit from this program?

Withycombe: I don’t know that a specific number was ever given. The state’s health authority was given $5 million, and my understanding is the legislative fiscal office estimated that about $4.7 million of that could be used specifically to buy the air conditioners, and the remaining would be for administration and overcut.

Miller: After you wrote about this, you got some voicemails from readers who were interested themselves in AC units. You got their permission to play them on the radio, and you sent them to us. Let’s listen to one that came in. This is from John in Eugene.

John in Eugene: How can I go about putting my name in the pool to get an air conditioner? I’m 69 years old and have an account with senior disability services. I’ve been with them for 30 years. I am a member of the Oregon Health Plan. I think that would be eligible, and I am just baking in this heat dome, as they’re calling it.

Miller: How can people get on the list for these units?

Withycombe: Without getting into the weeds on how Medicaid patients in Oregon get care, the pool of 3,000 units, there will be a greater number eventually purchased by the $5 million that was allocated by the legislature, but the initial batch is going to be 3,000, that’s going to a separate pool of Oregonians who the Oregon Health Authority is choosing. But for those Oregonians who haven’t heard from OHA and are curious about getting a unit, they can reach out to their Coordinated Care Organization, or CCO in their area, who OHA tells me have consistent funding for air conditioners. So it’s a little in the weeds, but there are ways to ask your healthcare provider for an air conditioner if you are on Medicaid, but it would likely not be paid for by this one bill.

Miller: Because there have been existing programs to get some people who might be eligible AC units separate from this new infusion of cash from the Legislature?

Withycombe: Yeah, exactly. So there are a couple of routes by which Oregonians on public health care plans can get an air conditioner.

Miller: Let’s listen to one more voice mail. This is Linda in Salem.

Linda in Salem: My air conditioning unit and furnaces all blew. I don’t have any money. I live on social security. It’s gonna cost me $10,000. So I would like to see if I’m available for one of your units that goes in the window. Thank you. Bye bye.

Miller: The idea behind this program was that people would get their air conditioners in time to have them be useful this summer, right?

Withycombe: Yes, that was the intention.

Miller: What exactly did OHA officials say to lawmakers back in June about the timeline at that point?

Withycombe: A staffer from the Oregon Health Authority told lawmakers on June 2nd that the agency would be purchasing 3,000 units. The staffer told lawmakers that they anticipated having them delivered before the end of June.

Miller: What did you find when you did a public records request and you actually looked into when purchase orders were actually made?

Withycombe: What we found is that the records showed that the first order of AC units was officially placed on June 17th, 2 weeks after that legislative testimony.

Miller: We got this statement from OHA about this program to distribute AC units. This is what they wrote: “OHA has worked hard to buy and deliver units as quickly as possible, while navigating the supply chain bottlenecks and mandated state procurement process. State health officials received 1,000 air conditioners in July. At this time, our warehouse shelves are empty. We’ve distributed every air conditioner that was shipped to us with the help of other state agencies and community based organizations. We are grateful for their help. We know that not everyone who needs an AC unit will get one, but we are committed to reaching as many people as we can through this program.”

Claire Withycombe, this statement very specifically points out that after receiving 1,000 AC units, their warehouse shelves are empty. Does that mean that 1,000 units have been delivered to people’s homes?

Withycombe: That’s where it gets a little bit murky. I inquired with OHA last week as to the number of units that had actually been delivered to people’s homes and installed and were working. And I was told at the time it wasn’t possible to get that number, because it was changing by the hour.

Miller: That statement brought up two issues that it seems, from this paragraph, are reasons for the delays. One is supply chain bottlenecks that we have heard a lot about in recent months. The other is the “mandated state procurement process.” What exactly are they referring to, and how are they using this to explain the delay?

Withycombe: So whenever the government buys something, particularly something expensive, it has to go through a process to vet that purchase. And depending on the type of purchase you want to make and how significant it is, there are different steps you have to take. The idea is to safeguard public money. Initially, OHA thought that it could amend an existing agreement it had with a supplier and move a little bit faster through the process than it would otherwise. But then it learned that, rather than doing that, it had to issue a new purchase order and get quotes from other suppliers. The state had been using this one vendor, Grainger, for air filtration devices, but it was told that since they wanted to purchase a different type of a device, air conditioning, it would have to get quotes from other suppliers as well.

Miller: What have you heard from either a community based organization that’s been giving these units out or someone who’s actually gotten a unit?

Withycombe: I haven’t heard directly from anyone who has received a unit. I was able to touch base with a Beaverton based organization last week, and their founder and executive director said that they basically spent the whole week picking up and distributing units to people in their community, either directly themselves, and they also worked with other local nonprofits in the area to distribute out the units in smaller batches.

Miller: What is the timeline now in terms of more units either being sent directly by OHA via FedEx, or going to these organizations and then going to people’s homes?

Withycombe: I was told that the next shipment is coming in August, but the Health Authority doesn’t have the exact date on the remaining 2,000 units right now. I was told that they’re trying to speed up procurement.

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