Medi-Cal providers bracing for pay cut - California

There’s a lot of focus this week on the Medicare reductions, but in California there’s also the Medi-Cal cuts. Already it is very difficult to find physicians who will still take Medi-Cal today, that battle through attrition has already be done, but the biggest potential losers in California are the hospitals, many of which have already taken out loans. One other footnote, today I heard the Good Neighbor Pharmacies advertising and asking consumers on the radio to show their support for stopping the pay cut as well, stating they may not be able to continue to handle Medi-Cal prescriptions too.

In the business world there is this thing called “cash flow” and hospitals are no different. They need cash flow too and reimbursement for taking care of everyone who shows up at the ER. Every hospital has their share as by law they cannot turn people away. The Medi-Cal cuts have also created a day in court to challenge, which is due sometime soon in the courts in Los Angeles. The state has delayed for a month the writing of checks, so again it all comes around to cash flow or the lack of. Pharmacies are also dropping out of the loop. So where do we win, how does everyone get health care? It is time for a new plan all the way around to generate revenue to cover. The old proverbial “sales pad” is gone with padded projections that protected us for years as technology gets it down to the last penny to allocate. In the past budgets were always padded to cover incidentals, but that has vanished by today’s standards of the information era. BD

We have all but camped out in (the governor's) bedroom to convince him to reverse these cuts, and nobody is doing anything to undo them," said Scott Seamons, regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California, an association representing hospitals in the region. The California Hospital Association and California Medical Association were among the groups that filed suit to try to block the cuts. They are waiting for a court date in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Along with the lower reimbursement rates, the state delayed for a month the Medi-Cal payments that were due to hospitals June 19. Another check- writing delay is set for August.

The Modesto Bee | Medi-Cal providers bracing for pay cut