Two California County Boards Take Action on Health Programs for Uninsured

The Stanislaus County, Calif., Board of Supervisors on Oct. 2 unanimously voted to accept funds from the county Children and Families Commission to help finance a health care program for children, the Modesto Bee reports. The supervisors approved $1.3 million in grants to fund the first nine months of the Child Health Access Program, which provides health care services for eligible uninsured children and pregnant women. The county will receive a total of $2.5 million for the first year of the program, $3.2 million for the second year and $3.6 million for the third year. The program does not provide health coverage, but beneficiaries receive free care at county facilities. County health officials hope the new program will help decrease the number of uninsured residents who seek nonemergency treatment in emergency departments. To qualify, pregnant women and children up to five years of age must have annual household incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level and cannot qualify for public health insurance. Families who do qualify for public programs like Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, the state's Medicaid and CHIP programs, will be permitted to participate in the Child Health Access Program for 90 days, during which time agency officials will help them enroll in the appropriate health plan (Navarro, Modesto Bee, 10/2).

Orange County Indigent Health Care Program
The Orange County, Calif., Board of Supervisors on Oct. 1 voted 4-0 to restructure the Medical Services for Indigents program, which provides non-mandated care for uninsured county residents, the Los Angeles Times reports. Supervisors approved a proposal that would increase the county's annual allocation for the program to $47 million, which includes an additional $2 million to cover the program's increased pharmaceutical costs. The proposal also adds a managed care component to the program that includes a case management system to refer participants to the "appropriate care," the Times reports. However, patient advocates said that the proposal did not address the lack of funds for the system, the Times reports. Proposals to restructure the county's indigent health care system received a "major push" in August, when officials at the University of California-Irvine Medical Center announced that the hospital would no longer accept new patients who reside more than five miles from the facility. As a result, the county has negotiated with other hospitals to "equalize the patient load." Supervisors also voted to spend $7.2 million of the county's share of the national tobacco settlement on the Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics, which will use the funds to increase patient access to health clinics (Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times, 10/2).