In the face of spiraling enrollment in the program, the Orange County Budget office has proposed a $1 million reduction in the Hospital Pool for fiscal year 2013-14, anticipating the transition of most MSI patients to Medi-Cal in January. This has been under discussion between HASC, the County Budget office and the Health Care Agency, and it was also discussed in HASC’s MSI Committee last week. HASC and other stakeholders are hopeful the County will agree to maintain stable funding in the program to offset increased enrollment.

Enrollment in the program has spiked significantly, from 41,156 in program year 2010-11 to a projected 57,220 in program year 2012-13. The state’s anticipated $350 million to encourage expanded enrollment in local programs such as MSI and the Low Income Health Program will serve as pre-enrollment in the transition of most of this population to Medi-Cal in 2014 and grow the program even further during the current year.

In the meantime, counties are experiencing cash flow issues in these programs due to delays in payments from the state. In Orange County, this will result in temporary cuts in monthly payments to hospitals. While hospitals will recover these funds at the end of the program year, they had counted on these funds to at least partially cover the actual costs of services as the year progressed.

Contact: Julie Puentes
(714) 663-0294, jpuentes@hasc.org