Reacting to the loss of nearly $50 million at the hands of the state, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a revised budget last Tuesday, cutting millions in planned appropriations for hospitals, public safety and others in order to get to a balanced budget. 

$3 million of $4 million in appropriations to the MSI Hospital Pool, a portion of the $29 million total cut from the budget, would have increased average inpatient day payments to hospitals in the County’s indigent care program, MSI, a program long-acknowledged to be underfunded.

Hospitals are paid, on average, 33 cents to the dollar of the actual cost of providing services in the MSI program. Exacerbating the impact of these cuts for hospitals is that County expenditures are matched, dollar for dollar, by the federal government to help counties expand access to health care. The actual loss to hospitals as a result of last week’s Board of Supervisors action is therefore $6 million.