OPCA Annual Awards of Excellence: Outstanding CHC Advocate Award

Representative Rob Nosse (he/him), State Representative – District 42 – Portland

Rob Nosse is currently the state representative for HD 42, which consists of inner SE and a little sliver of NE Portland. He has been the state representative for this area of Portland since 2014. He has recently served on the Ways and Means Committee, where he is the sub-committee co-chair for human services, and he also serves as Vice Chair of the House Behavioral Health Care Committee. With those two roles Representative Nosse was able to steer over one billion dollars in federal and state marijuana revenues into a series of behavioral health bills and budgets, one of the largest investments in behavioral and mental health in decades during the 2021 and 2022 sessions.

He was recently appointed serve as the chair of the House Health Care Committee. He is also one of two Majority Whips, a role that is responsible for working with other members of the Democratic Caucus to check in on bills and priorities to make sure that there is support for passage when final votes come. OPCA first engaged Rep. Nosse when he became chair of the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care to help him better understand FQHCs. Over the last year, OPCA helped him understand the 340B program and its integral role in FQHC funding and patient access.

“When we approached Rep. Nosse mid 2023 with the idea to introduce a 340B contract pharmacy bill that would prohibit drug manufacturers from imposing restrictions on FQHC contract pharmacy relationships – he said yes. Despite how “”spicy”” this issue was and would become, he became our champion on this issue.

His passion showed when he was challenged by his own colleagues that this issue was “complicated” he responded by saying that the issue isn’t complicated and it’s simple. This bill is about ensuring people can access their medications and not depriving safety net clinics of the vital funding they need to expand access to health care.” -Marty Carty, Governmental Affairs Director, OPCA

Unfortunately, the bill OPCA introduced failed to gather enough votes to pass this last session. However, Rep. Nosse took every opportunity to lift up FQHCs and their value and model of care in public comments on the issue.

Rep. Nosse is a strong advocate for patient access and has made sure to tour his local health centers. In past sessions, he has introduced bills brought by individual FQHCs. Recently he worked with Prism Health to introduce legislation for them.

Rep. Nosse announced in mid-2023 that he is convening a CCO 3.0 workgroup in mid-2024. As part of that, he said that he would be meeting with interested parties to gather feedback in a 1:1 setting. He proactively reached out to OPCA asking for a meeting on this topic which was Jan. 24, 2024. His interest in OPCA and FQHCs on this topic was on his own initiative and I think that speaks to his interest in lifting up the FQHC experience in this space and that he values our perspective.

Submission written by Marty Carty, Governmental Affairs Director, OPCA