Medi-Cal cuts barely slice UCLA Med Center

OSCAR ALVAREZ/Daily Bruin The UCLA Medical Center will not be
affected as much as other hospitals by the state budget proposed
$116 million cut in Medi-Cal funds.

By Jeyling Chou and Hilaire Fong
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTORS
[email protected]
[email protected]

The proposed $116 million cut in Medi-Cal to the state budget
will not affect the UCLA Medical Center as much as other hospitals,
officials say.

Because UCLA mainly receives patients with serious medical
issues, such as transplant or trauma cases, it is not likely such
patients would lose their eligibility for Medi-Cal, said Sergio
Melgar, senior associate director and chief financial officer of
the Medical Center.

The Medi-Cal program, which reimburses hospitals for treating
patients without health insurance, is only one of several programs
that saw their funds decrease because of the state’s $23.6
billion deficit. The cut will reduce the number of people eligible
for Medi-Cal throughout the state by about 500,000,

The UCLA Medical Center will endure relatively little damage,
but that is not the case for other UC hospitals.

“The ones that have the responsibility for taking care of
the medically indigent (uninsured) are going to be hit harder than
the others,” said UC spokesman Charles McFadden.

Medical centers at UC Irvine, Davis and San Diego have a high
volume of patients who are uninsured or on Medi-Cal. These
hospitals normally receive extra funding because they “take a
disproportionate share of people who are medically indigent,”
McFadden said.

“That funding has been cut, and that’s a matter of
serious concern,” he continued.

Melgar estimates that reduction in funds to the three
disproportionate share UC hospitals will fall between $5 million
and $10 million.

This cut is harsher than many health care providers
expected.

“People were anticipating that the program wouldn’t
be cut significantly because the loss is more than dollar for
dollar,” Melgar said.

Each dollar spent on Medi-Cal at the state level is matched by
the federal government, so any cuts at the state level results in a
proportional decrease in Medi-Cal funds from the federal
government.

Cuts in Medi-Cal will affect other hospitals throughout the
state as well.

Hospitals that qualify for the disproportionate share funds are
generally located in low-income areas and treat a higher number of
patients who cannot afford healthcare.

This is of concern to healthcare groups and has moved them to
take action.

“We believe this cut is going to hurt real people, people
at the lowest end of the economic scale,” said Jan Emerson,
spokesperson for the California Healthcare Association, whose
organization is lobbying the Legislature to not cut such
funding.

“We believe this is fundamentally wrong. That money is
supposed to go to the hospitals,” she said.