A plan by nonprofit PeaceHealth to contract out emergency services at three Oregon hospitals to a for-profit Atlanta-based firm is increasingly raising questions about whether the arrangement violates a new, high-profile Oregon law intended to block corporate meddling in patient care.

And among those questions is a basic one: If the law is broken, who would enforce it?

The agreement with ApolloMD to contract out the services at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, Peace Harbor Medical Center, and Cottage Grove Community Medical Center has sparked concerns among officials, providers and members of the public who fear the result will be poor care.

Observers say the new arrangement also appears to exactly mirror the sort of arrangement that the Oregon Legislature sought to block with a law passed last year. The law barred nonmedical entities or personnel from owning or controlling private medical practices, including through hiring, setting work hours or determining compensation.

A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, who spearheaded the new law, told The Lund Report in an email that “All the information we have so far indicates that the structure that Apollo is using is typical of … the type of model our bill was designed to prevent.”

At issue in the current situation is a company set up by ApolloMD representatives in Oregon called Lane Emergency Physicians, LLC. While it was ApolloMD that responded to PeaceHealth’s proposal to contract out its emergency room services, company officials said it would actually be the new Oregon firm set up by ApolloMD that would provide them. They provided more details about the arrangement in a letter to lawmakers on March 6.

A legal observer on Tuesday, however, told The Lund Report the new details don’t prove compliance with Oregon law. The company has not disclosed enough details to know for sure, but “from the facts I’ve seen, it appears that this arrangement may have already violated the law,” said Hayden Rooke-Ley, an attorney and health care policy scholar who participated in the efforts Bowman led to beef up the state’s corporate practice of medicine law. Rooke-Ley, who has since been appointed to serve on the Oregon Health Policy Board, spoke only for himself.

Behind the scenes, lawmakers already have requested that state Attorney General Dan Rayfield put a “hold” on the transaction, according to records obtained by The Lund Report. Oregon Department of Justice's authority to enforce the new law had been included in an earlier version of the legislation, but was removed before Senate Bill 951’s passage last year. 

That removal was cited by an attorney for the department in an email obtained through a public records request by The Lund Report. The email indicated that enforcement may fall to the Oregon Health Authority. 

“We ended up not having any enforcement capabilities in the final form of SB 951 (2025),” wrote the attorney, Leslie Wu in a March 3 email. “We do think OHA is the right agency who might be able to do something.”

On March 10, the Oregon Health Authority sent PeaceHealth a letter encouraging the hospital system to consult with the agency to see if the new arrangement falls under an earlier law authorizing the state to review health care mergers and major partnerships.

Meanwhlile, the state law governing the corporate practice of medicine charges the Oregon Medical Board with enforcing the requirement that any medical practice be majority-owned by licensed physicians.

A spokesperson for the board told The Lund Report in an email that, “The Oregon Medical Board is aware of the situation. The OMB is in an active review of its statutes and authorities regarding concerns related to PeaceHealth’s decision to use ApolloMD. We do not have any further comment at this time ... The OMB will act transparently should there be authorities available to it that it seeks to use.”

Company claims it is complying with the law.

In a March 6 letter, ApolloMD CEO Yogin Patel responded to multiple questions posed by Bowman and state Reps. Lisa Fragala and Nancy Nathanson, pushing back on the notion that his company’s agreement with PeaceHealth violates state law.

He stated that under the agreement with PeaceHealth, ApolloMD Business Services, LLC, an affiliate of ApolloMD, will serve as the management services organization to Lane, delivering non-clinical administrative and operational support. 

“All clinical judgment, patient care decisions, medical direction, and professional responsibilities will remain exclusively with Lane’s licensed Oregon physician owner and its clinicians, in full compliance with Oregon law, including Senate Bill 951,” Patel states.

Lane Emergency Physicians LLC was created Feb. 6 and is registered in Oregon with a primary place of business in Atlanta, the same as ApolloMD. Patel said Lane is structured as a “physician-owned Oregon professional limited liability company,” under the sole ownership of Dr. Johne Philip Chapman, an emergency medicine physician based in the Chicago area. Chapman’s Oregon medical license application is pending, Patel said. 

As the sole owner and member, Chapman will serve as the sole manager and hold all officer positions for Lane, Patel said. “ApolloMD and its affiliates have no role whatsoever in Lane’s governance, ownership decisions, or officer appointments.”

The letter does not state whether Chapman will relocate to Oregon to run the Oregon company or serve patients here.

Patel said the agreement with PeaceHealth, still to be finalized, will draw a clear line between the administrative support ApolloMD provides and clinical authority. ApolloMD, he stated, will have no authority over medical decisions or the delivery of health care services. 

Patel stated that ApolloMD is not owned by any private equity firm, addressing reports that it is backed by a prominent private equity firm. Critics say private equity ownership tends to correlate with poor patient care.

“ApolloMD is owned by 300+ of our physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and employees, some of which hold their ownership interests indirectly through holding companies,” he wrote. “We also share concerns about private equity influence in healthcare and are dedicated to ensuring clinical decisions remain independent and in the best interest of patients.”

In a Feb. 27 letter addressed to PeaceHealth leadership, Eugene-area state Sens. Floyd Prozanski and James Manning questioned the legality of the ApolloMD arrangement, citing the new state law.

“These provisions protect medical integrity by ensuring licensed Oregon physicians – not corporate interests – lead patient care. ApolloMD's attempt to use services of the newly formed Lane Emergency Physicians, LLC appears to be an attempt to bypass protections set forth in the above-referenced Oregon statutes,” the letter states.