The Legislative Counsel’s Office has told Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-Portland) that her sponsorship of a bill that would benefit her financially does not constitute a conflict of interest.

That’s because if the bill passes, it would benefit a class of people—pediatricians and internists who own independent practices—and not just Reynolds, a shareholder in the Children’s Clinic, a pediatric practice in Southwest Portland.

As the Oregon Journalism Project reported earlier, Reynolds sponsored Senate Bill 28 , which would require that primary care physicians at independent practices be reimbursed at the same rate as doctors at nearby hospitals. Reynolds told her colleagues on the Senate Health Care Committee that she and other independent providers currently get reimbursed far less than hospita

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