The Oregon Office of Rural Health this month awarded Orion Falvey, 30, CEO and co-founder of Orchid Health, the 2020 Oregon Rural Health Hero of the Year Award.

“It’s well-deserved. I really appreciate Orion’s energy and way of thinking,’” said Robert Duehmig, interim director of the Oregon Health and Science University’s Oregon Office of Rural Health.

In 2014, shortly after graduating from the University of Oregon’s business school, Orion Falvey co-founded Orchid Health, a family of clinics in Oakridge, Estacada and Blue River, with classmate Oliver Alexander.

Falvey has pushed boundaries in health care. He has negotiated with insurance companies, offered patients in poverty affordable care, supported people through natural disasters and improved community health.

Falvey recalls what first ignited his passion.

He grew up in Haines, Alaska, so remote the nearest city was accessible only by plane or ferry.

When Falvey was in eighth grade, his sister, Rigel, fell sick. The local clinic couldn’t diagnose her, so she was flown to Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Rigel recovered; she’s now a nurse. The experience developed in Falvey a desire to improve rural health care.

Duehmig of OHSU said he is impressed by the “new ideas” Falvey brings to the field.

One of Falvey’s innovations was pioneering a rare financial model.

Most clinics get reimbursed by insurance companies based on patient volume. COVID-19 has revealed cracks in that model. When clinics had to cancel elective procedures, revenue plummeted. Falvey’s clinics, in contrast, have remained financially healthy.

“The standard payment model is so flawed,” he said.

When Falvey started his first clinic in Oakridge, he approached insurance providers — ranging from Trillium Community Health Plan to Medicare — with an idea.

Hospitalizations cost insurance providers more than holistic and preventive care, so Falvey asked providers to reimburse his clinics using a “value-based” model focused on community health. The providers agreed to take a chance.

Instead of focusing only on sick visits, Falvey tried new things: community outreach events, hour-long initial doctor visits, even offering a weekly “walk with your doctor” event.

The results have been astounding. In the past six years, Oakridge has seen a 50% decrease in emergency department visits.

Falvey also created a sliding fee scale based on income. Because half of his clinics’ revenues come from value-based contracts, only 5% of revenues would come from aggressively collecting outstanding balances from poor families, Falvey said. And that’s not his mission.

“We want to serve everyone regardless of ability to pay,” he said.

Falvey also received this year’s hero award based on his leadership through catastrophes.

During COVID-19, he has pivoted his clinics to telehealth and gave computer tablets to patients.

When blizzards pummeled Oakridge in 2019, Falvey’s clinic helped rescue people, deliver food, clear pathways and did wellness visits.

When the Holiday Farm Fire struck in September, burning the Orchid McKenzie River Clinic to the ground, Falvey’s team continued serving about 1,000 patients from a quilt shop. Falvey recently purchased a mobile clinic to continue serving Blue River’s displaced residents.

Falvey encourages anyone interested in improving rural healthcare to talk to him.

“Our vision is much larger than what we’re able to do alone,” he said.