Davis seeks federal help to aid ailing LA County health system
Wednesday November 27, 2002
By ALEXA H. BLUTH
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO (AP) Gov. Gray Davis and Los Angeles County
officials are asking for waivers of federal rules to help ease a
fiscal crisis that forced the closure of 11 clinics in the nation's
second-largest public health system.
Davis and county leaders submitted a plan to the Bush
administration Wednesday that health officials said would preserve
emergency and inpatient services at two major hospitals and could
stabilize Los Angeles County's beleaguered health care system for
five years.
The state-county plan asks the federal government to ease
regulations that penalize hospitals for using less-costly
outpatient care, and urges the renewal of a federal waiver that
allows the state to accept competitive bids to serve patients on
Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid.
The plan submitted Wednesday does not ask the federal government
for more money, but rather would ``allow us to use the moneys
already allocated in a creative fashion that solves problems up and
down the state,'' Davis said.
``There is no solution to this problem in Los Angeles or
throughout the state without the federal government continuing to
play the role as a senior partner,'' Davis said.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services faces a
major deficit, even with voter approval earlier this month of a
property tax measure that will generate some $168 million annually
for emergency rooms, trauma centers and bioterrorism preparedness.
Around the state, county health departments faced with budget
problems are slowing or cutting spending, blaming the state budget
crisis, a rise in uninsured patients, reduced medical
reimbursements and reduced state and federal spending.
Before the passage of Measure B, the health care deficit was
projected to reach $1.4 billion over five years, threatening to
force the county into bankruptcy. The tax measure is expected to
provide a total $6 to $7 million and the proposed federal waivers
would provide another estimated a total of $7 to $8 million over
the next five years, said Tom Garthwaite, director of Los Angeles
County Health Services Department.
County supervisors voted in August to shutter 11 of 18 public
health clinics and cut $56.8 million from its health care budget.
Proposals are on the table to close emergency rooms and inpatient
services at Harbor UCLA and Olive View medical centers, in addition
to scrapping a programs that gives money to privately run health
clinics.
The new proposal could mean ``we can probably take those
draconian cuts off the table,'' said Jim Lott, executive vice
president of the Health Care Association of Southern California, a
hospital trade group. ``We can stop looking at wholesale cuts to
the health care system in Los Angeles for at least three years;
that's a positive thing.''
The county previously asked for a $1.4 billion bailout from the
federal government, but federal officials indicated they were
opposed. Now, officials are asking the federal government to:
Change financial incentives for hospitals to hospitalize
Medi-Cal patients instead of promoting treatment in more efficient
outpatient settings.
Renew a waiver for the state's Selective Provider Contracting
Program, in which hospitals bid for the state's inpatient Medi-Cal
business leading to lower rates for Medi-Cal. The state distributes
some of the saved money to about 80 safety-net hospitals and it is
used mainly for trauma care. California has encountered resistance
from the Bush administration in its latest request to renew the
waiver.
Davis said state and county officials will meet next month to
discuss the plan.
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On the Net: http://www.lacounty.info
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)