Asante has told Southern Oregon communities that financial pressure is forcing difficult decisions about healthcare services and jobs. Now two state legislators want the hospital system to explain payments to outside labor relations firms that appear to exceed the amount it reported in a federal filing by nearly $1 million.
The question reaches well beyond Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford. Asante operates Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass and provides care across a nine-county region in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Patients who begin treatment in Grants Pass may rely on Rogue Regional for more specialized care. When Asante changes services, staffing or spending, those decisions can be felt across the region.
State Sen. Kathleen Taylor and state Rep. Dacia Grayber are seeking an accounting from Asante after the Oregon Nurses Association compared federal reports filed by the hospital system and by labor relations consultants. Asante Rogue Regional reported paying $160,962 to one consultant, Government Resources Consultants of America. The nurses association says four firms reported receiving more than $1.1 million from Asante in 2023.
The association released news of the legislators’ request Wednesday, September 23. It had raised the same figures in testimony submitted to the Oregon Legislature in February 2025. What remains unanswered is how the payments in the separate reports fit together and whether they were all subject to the same disclosure requirements.
That answer carries particular weight now. Asante has cited financial challenges while reducing services at its Ashland hospital and laying off workers. Nurses have challenged the system’s staffing decisions, and Rogue Regional’s registered nurses are in negotiations over a new contract. The consultant reports do not establish that spending on those firms caused a cut to patient care. They do put another expense before the public at a time when Asante is asking the region to accept difficult changes.
The figures cannot yet be treated as proof of an undisclosed $1 million payment. Asante’s cited report covers October 2022 through September 2023, while the nurses association describes the firms’ receipts during 2023. The reports may also identify different Asante entities or types of work. An accounting from Asante would show whom it paid, when it paid them and how those payments relate to what the firms reported receiving.
The filings are maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards, which collects reports from employers and labor relations consultants about certain activities involving workers’ organizing rights. The office’s records provide the basis for checking the payments. Asante has not addressed this specific comparison in the public material reviewed for this article.
The dispute over consultant spending unfolds alongside an established federal labor case at Rogue Regional. More than 250 technical workers and licensed practical nurses voted in 2023 to join the Oregon Nurses Association. After Asante contested the election, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the hospital in June to recognize the union and bargain with those employees. Asante said the decision was part of the legal process through which it was seeking judicial review. That ruling addresses the workers’ bargaining rights, not the accuracy of Asante’s spending disclosures.
Registered nurses at Rogue Regional are bargaining separately. Asante’s account of a September 10 negotiating session describes extensive discussion of scheduling and an exchange of proposals. More sessions were scheduled for September 24, 28 and 30. Those talks will help determine working conditions at a hospital that serves patients throughout Southern Oregon, including people transferred from smaller communities for specialized treatment.
Taylor and Grayber have asked Asante to account for the consultant payments and explain where the money came from. The hospital system’s response will determine whether the apparent gap reflects the way the reports were filed or a discrepancy requiring further action. For the communities that rely on Asante’s hospitals, the immediate demand is a clear explanation of its spending while decisions about local care and healthcare jobs continue.