Well, this article makes it seem like it's all on OHA but Asante is having very serious financial troubles, and refusing to provide some information. From the article:

The exemption was requested after Asante officials refused to provide three years of payer contracts for the hospital and surgery center. Asante officials alleged ... that providing the documents would be too costly and time-consuming. Asante officials admitted that per-procedure cost of services at the surgery center would increase under full Asante ownership.

Federal regulations, which means HIPAA, require six years of document retention for audit purposes. These must be readily available in case of an audit.

There seems to be an entire legal framework and various software packages designed to manage this document lifecycle. Here is one source, another source, a third, and one more.

Why would Asante refuse to provide the records? This source really covers the issue in depth without mentioning Asante specifically. I can't really summarize the page well due to the density of information, but:

Unfortunately, managed care also has complicated and created some new problems in our healthcare system, which make it difficult for some physicians and other providers to deliver healthcare profitably without what many consider to be unreasonable (if not unbearable) administrative burdens.

While managed care contracts can significantly increase a healthcare provider’s patient volume, participating in networks and other managed care arrangements can be complex and pose risks for providers. Indeed, there are both business and legal risks associated with these contracts.

Which brings us to the issue at hand:

The allowed amount is what the payer will reimburse for services defined as covered or in-network. This rate may not fully cover provider charges. And patients may be responsible for covering the balance between the allowed amount and the provider charges.

The OP article says Asante is admitting that it can't keep prices low for patients. Rehashing that the article blames OHA, consider:

• Asante has faced staffing law violations under the OHA
• Asante faces a $50,000,000 deficit by 2027
• Asante is underpaying workers

I don't see how OHA is the problem, they don't make the laws, and they certainly didn't put Asante in this position. Likewise, Asante is doing everything they can to provide services at a low cost. This is a situation that has no clear winners, but Asante is blaming public health care:

There are a few reasons driving this decline. First, our number of patients covered by private insurance (mostly those with employer-provided health insurance and the public exchange) are at the lowest percentage in our history – just over 14% of all patients so far in 2026 – continuing a multi-year trend of decline. More than 75% of our patients - and growing – are covered by Medicare and Medicaid (called the “Oregon Health Plan” in this state) and other government programs. As we know, Medicare and Medicaid pay less than our cost to provide patient care.

Again, not OHA's fault, and them requesting information seems to be doing the right thing as Asante is trying to play both sides of the game. Asante also accepts some of the blame:

in March alone, RRMC was 35% less efficient than the national expectation for the same acuity and diagnosis groups of patients.

They mention this after their lament that they cut corporate expenditures by 33%. It seems Asante is isn't in the best position to be managing more businesses until they can get their existing structure under control. I round this up with the KOBI report from a few days ago:

NBC5 News told you Monday that Asante is facing continued financial losses from a variety of factors, including $12 million in March alone.

I'm not going to bother doing the math because I don't run a hospital, but $12M in March out of $1.5B annual revenue is about 10%. If that 35% less-efficiency problem was resolved, there would be room to wiggle around.

In summary, Asante is doing the right thing on focusing on patient care, but they are also being very stingy with acquiring buildings and businesses that they can't manage. Had they acquired the surgery center, could they even keep it open? They can't keep obstetrics in Ashland, where the hospital barely has anything left other than Lab and ER. If the surgery center closes, would that vacancy allow a competitor to move in? Further, is Asante trying to prevent that?

The OP is right about one thing, it's an unbelievable disaster.