Eugene Emergency Physicians Warn Senate Over PeaceHealth Shift to ApolloMD

Drs. Julie Seo and Jeremy Brown stood before the Oregon Senate Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal and World Affairs in Salem and warned that PeaceHealth Oregon Network’s plan to transfer emergency physician management to ApolloMD’s new Lane Emergency Physicians LLC threatens local emergency care, with EEP’s contract set to expire June 30, 2026 and ApolloMD slated to begin staffing July 1, 2026. The informational hearing on March 5, 2026, drew lawmakers’ attention to what EEP calls a sudden change in a decades-long local arrangement.

EEP framed the stakes with hard numbers: the group has staffed PeaceHealth Lane County emergency departments for 35 years since its founding in 1991, the team says it has covered about 150,000 shifts, and NBC16 identified EEP as a 41-provider team. RiverBend Medical Center’s emergency department, which EEP staffs, now handles about 85,000 visits a year and recorded a highest daily census of 293 patients, figures EEP and local coverage provided to the committee.

Dr. Julie Seo, introduced as a board-certified emergency medicine physician who has served Eugene-Springfield and Cottage Grove for 20 years, asked senators to require formal review of the transition and greater transparency: “This is about ensuring that Lane County’s emergency system remains stable, locally accountable, and disaster -ready,” and she urged the body to consider “whether emergency department transition of this magnitude should receive state -level review, whether full transparency regarding ownership and decision making control of the companies involved should be required, and whether there should be authority for oversight, including if necessary, the right to seek judicial relief when a transition may maturely affect emergency preparedness and public safety infrastructure.”

Dr. Jeremy Brown stressed the operational risk and raised ownership questions: “Emergency medicine is a form of organized chaos, with high acuity, time-critical, and dependent trust built over years and decades.” He also warned that “There’s still a lot to be discovered about how Apollo structured how Lane Emergency Physicians, this new company that they’re creating, And their relation to Valor Bridge, which is a private equity firm, and what some of those connections truly are.”

Sen. James Manning Jr., D-Eugene and committee chair, said he was “very nervous and concerned” about the proposed shift, calling PeaceHealth’s path “appalling” and saying he wants to “talk with the Oregon Health Authority to provide more oversight” and to “find a way to slow the move until they can find out if there are any legal steps that can be taken to investigate ApolloMD.” Manning attended the hearing wearing dark glasses after recent eye surgery, a detail noted by reporters at the session. Other lawmakers at the hearing vowed support for EEP and one lawmaker characterized the change as a “carpetbagger takeover.”

Legal and regulatory context surfaced during testimony: KEZI noted that Senate Bill 951, signed June 2025, requires Oregon doctors work for physician-owned groups, and EEP suggested ApolloMD created Lane Emergency Physicians LLC in response to that law. EEP asked the committee to consider state-level review, ownership transparency, oversight authority, and the possibility of judicial relief if the transition undermines emergency preparedness.

The materials presented to the committee did not include direct comments from PeaceHealth or ApolloMD, and no financial or contract terms were disclosed at the hearing. With the contract deadline June 30 approaching, Sen. Manning said he will consult the Oregon Health Authority and explore oversight or legal options as the county waits to see whether PeaceHealth will reverse the move or whether state action will follow.