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State Withholding Medi-Cal Payments from Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics
Medi-Cal reimbursements from the state are being withheld from many California health-care facilities, including Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, until a budget is passed.
Until sometime in September, the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics won’t get reimbursed for the care they give to Medi-Cal patients, Deputy Director Bonnie Campbell said.
She estimates that amount will be in the $700,000 range. The state contacts the clinics via e-mail to let them know which months they’re withholding, and only a few weeks in July were paid since July 1.
“Yes, we have lines of credit,” she said, “but it just sinks us lower.”
The Neighborhood Clinics accept Medi-Cal and Medicare patients as well as the uninsured and self-pays, but reimbursements are chronically less than the cost to provide services. Getting by with their credit accrues interest and is worse for the clinics’ finances, she said. For the cost of $154 per visit, the average reimbursement is $62.
Patient visits have increased in 2010 to 100 more new patients a month than last year, which Campbell credits to more people out of work and losing health insurance. Philanthropic giving is also down, as many foundations who consistently give grants to the clinics have not done so recently, she said.
Click here for a full list of facilities from which the state is withholding payments.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 08.24.10 @ 11:34 AM
Greedygovunion employee pensions on the backs of the poor in need of health care. Nice…
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» on 08.25.10 @ 10:14 AM
All state and local departments need to initiate immediate pay, benefit and hiring freezes. Then, through attrition and layoffs, 40 percent of all state and local employees would need to be released within one year. This would not include law enforcement, fire department personnel and actual teachers. The attrition would come from the administrative side of the house.
Finally, all pension and salary plans would be frozen. They would be frozen until such time as inflation, or the cost of living, makes them on par with the private sector. They would never be allowed to exceed comparable private-sector jobs. There is absolutely no excuse for a government employee to be making more than a comparable private-sector job. What is in place now is unsustainable.
The goal would be to make state and local governments responsive to our needs, able to listen and strong enough to handle real problems.
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» on 08.31.10 @ 10:59 AM
Add to that…..every government union employee, figure what they would have invested (even maximum), from their paycheck, with a match 10% of that number, if they had a 401K plan. That would be there retirement, and give it to them. Better than paying them for the rest of their life out of taxes for 90% of their last year or two of work. if they only worked 25 years…too bad…that is your retirement!
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» on 08.31.10 @ 11:27 AM
Exactly. Sucking the goose dry. Greedy bastards.
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