$18.4 Billion Medi-Cal Waiver Could Pressure Legislature
to Accept Governor’s Medi-Cal Managed Care Proposal
[Posted 06/30/05]

The Schwarzenegger administration last week reached a five-year agreement with the federal government that could provide $18.4 billion in federal matching funds for California hospitals during the next five years. However, a large chunk of that money—more than $300 million—may be available only if the state moves forward with the governor's plan to force more than 500,000 elderly, blind, and disabled Medi-cal patients into managed care programs.

CMA policy opposes mandatory enrollment in managed care for elderly, blind, and disabled Medi-Cal patients, a population for which continuity of care is vital. The association is concerned that the governor's managed-care plan would disrupt long-standing physician-patient relationships, further restrict patient access to specialists, and place unsustainable financial burdens on physicians who provide care to these vulnerable patients. 

“We have serious concerns about the governor's plan as currently written,” says CMA CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., “Physicians must be intimately involved in the development of any plan to expand Medi-Cal managed care.”

Legislative budget committees have also rejected the governor's proposal to require the elderly, blind, and disabled to enroll in managed care. The Schwazenegger administration will now face-off with the legislature on this issue.

If the state moves forward with the governor's Medi-Cal managed care plan, implementation would take time and would be handled differently from county to county.

Click here for more information, including a copy of the waiver agreement and a copy of CMA policy on this issue.

Contact: Robin Flagg at 415/882-5110 or Lisa Folberg, at 916/551-2880.