Governor Postpone’s Medi-Cal Managed Care Proposal
[Posted 09/08/05]

Governor Postpones Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan
Due in large part to CMA advocacy and the negative reaction by physicians statewide, the Schwarzenegger administration this week postponed its plan to force more than 500,000 elderly, blind, and disabled Medi-cal patients into managed care programs. The administration conceded that the plan wasn’t ready for implementation, and that more time is needed to determine the plan’s impact on this fragile patient population.

The administration this summer reached a five-year agreement with the federal government that would provide up to $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—will 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. By postponing the shift, the state may forfeit up to $90 million of that new money.

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. Physicians are 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.

“Physicians must be intimately involved in the development of any plan to expand Medi-Cal managed care,” says CMA CEO Jack Lewin, M.D. CMA is pleased that the governor has recognized that forcing an ill-conceived plan on patients and physicians could disrupt care to thousands of elderly and disabled Californians. CMA will work closely with the Governor to ensure any future plan protects patients and physicians.

Contact: Lisa Folberg, 916/444-5532 or lfolberg@cmanet.org, or Robin Flagg, 415/882-5110 or rflagg@cmanet.org.