Sounds of Silence - Part 2 Monday, April 11, 2022
Back on April 4th, the LA Times published an op ed by two UC physicians complaining that UC Health facilities took very few Medi-Cal patients because of low reimbursement rates from that program. (Medi-Cal is the California component of federal Medicaid, which generally provides health insurance for indigent persons.) Blog readers will know that we waited a couple of days to see if there was a response by UC Health and then published excerpts from the op ed, expressing some surprise that there hadn't been an official response. We included some data from a UC publication that suggested there was a significant Medi-Cal presence among UC Health patients.* Yesterday, two letters to the editor - one from Carrie Byington, the top executive at UC Health - appeared in response. We reproduce them below. Exactly why there was a long delay is unclear. Was it in getting a response written or a delay by the LA Times? Letters to the Editor: If UC is abandoning Medi-Cal patients, that’s news to these doctors To the editor: Drs. Michael Wilkes and David Schriger suggest that University of California health systems do not adequately or equitably provide care to low-income patients on Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program. I do not doubt that my colleagues speak from the heart or with best intentions. I simply offer a contrasting experience.
As a surgical specialist with more than 20 years in the UC system, I know my practice has never shied away from delivering care to underserved populations. As chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery at UC San Diego Health, I regularly monitor our practice’s quality, care delivery and patient satisfaction data. Our payor mix for Medi-Cal and underfunded care routinely hovers at 20%-30%. UC hospitals are critical providers of Medi-Cal services, and by most measures, UC Health is the No. 2 provider of Medi-Cal hospital services in the state. Our hospitals received the most complex COVID-19 cases from surrounding facilities, and we partnered with border hospitals to support efforts to care for vulnerable populations. Does this sound like “shirking responsibility”? It is true that state reimbursements for Medi-Cal patients do not cover the actual cost of care, which is often higher because this patient population more frequently requires greater intensity care due to more advanced diseases at the time of diagnosis and treatment.
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UCLA Faculty Association Blog: 2nd Quarter 2022
