The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department announced that it will not be transferring thousands of Medi-Cal patients to other providers, reversing course on its previous plans.

Federal policy changes would prevent Public Health from providing care to people whom Medi-Cal designates as having “unsatisfactory immigration status,” so officials have been preparing to refer all of those local patients to other health care providers.

Public Health Director Mouhanad Hammami told the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday during its meeting in Santa Maria that the department has decided not to move forward with the transfers.

“We informed CenCal (Health) that we do not want to initiate any of the transfers,” Hammami said, “and we are continuing to provide care to this population.”

An injunction is in place for the federal law change, and Public Health leaders decided to cancel the transfers because the decision on the federal appeal most likely will be made in February, and the department decided that it did not need to act by January.

Even though the legislation is currently stopped by a court injunction, Public Health had begun plans to transfer undocumented patients to other facilities. Hammami said the goal is to ensure that patients do not see any interruptions in their standard of care.

During the board’s Oct. 7 meeting, Hammami informed the board that the department was preparing to transfer up to 7,000 of its patients.

He told the board that since he last appeared, the situation regarding undocumented patients was still uncertain, and many of the questions the department had were unanswered.

“However, one certainty is a fact,” Hammami said. “And that’s every decision and every action and every direction we wanted to take was to put our patients first and to make and that we are not jeopardizing access to care.”

Hammami stressed that his department was dedicated to making sure that the immigrant community continued to receive care, especially since it is considered especially vulnerable.

He said one of the benefits of the department’s previous plan is that it now has a procedure in place if it does need to transfer patients in the future and a team that can make sure the move goes smoothly.

He added that it also helped the department identify the capacity of different health providers, and Public Health is now confident it can handle the influx of new patients.

During the board’s questions, Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann asked whether Hammami was open to establishing a task force that would create a bridge between Public Health and the community. Hammami said he is interested in the idea and it is being explored, but it is not finalized yet.

Budget Implications

Since the department is not transferring patients, Public Health will not be adjusting its budget.

The financial deficit facing the department and potential layoffs were in anticipation of losing revenue after those patients were moved.

During a previous meeting on the issue, Public Health proposed eliminating 55 positions, which would have included 36 full-time employees.

The board decided not to make a decision at that time, and asked the department to hold discussions with the community on the issue. Activists had criticized the transfers and said they were not informed of the plan to transfer patients early enough.

Hammami said the meetings were good for gaining feedback from the community and helped dispel rumors.

Public Health also was instructed to speak with union leaders from the Service Employees International Union to see how they could mitigate the layoffs.

During public comment, members of SEIU stressed the need to maintain staff and told the board that cutting workers has an effect on the public.

Jay Forrest, a medical assistant for the department, stated that medical staff act as a safeguard for the community. He said staff help track diseases in the community, help provide transportation and provide mental health services.

“Reducing staff undermines these efforts directly by leaving our most vulnerable community members without protection,” Forrest said. “This would not only be a public health failure, but a moral failure.”