Oregon failed to track $80M meant to diversify behavioral health workforce, audit finds

The Oregon Health Authority failed to effectively track whether $80 million in pandemic relief funds it spent to help diversify Oregon’s behavioral health workforce actually did so, an internal agency audit found.

Amid staffing churn and a rush to get the funds out the door, the agency failed to plan how it would get the money to rural and underserved communities and create performance metrics to gauge effectiveness, auditors wrote in the report, issued in January.