State (Calif) freezes Medi-Cal payments to thousands of healthcare facilities

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Clinics, nursing homes and adult day care centers are among providers scrambling to fill the gap with funding from other sources.

SACRAMENTO -- -- Thousands of medical providers who care for low-income Californians are scrambling to find funds to keep their doors open, as the failure of lawmakers to pass a budget forces the state to halt payments to them.

State officials put the healthcare facilities on notice that starting today, payments from the Medi-Cal insurance program for the poor will be frozen until a budget is approved. An emergency pot of cash officials had set aside to pay the healthcare clinics, nursing homes and adult day care centers in the event of a delayed budget has run dry.

Although most of the facilities have no immediate plans to turn away patients, the providers warn that a budget stalemate that drags on through the summer will affect care. In the meantime, they are turning to banks, foundations and their own reserves for emergency cash to pay the bills.

"Most of the clinics are working on trying to get lines of credit," said William Dobson, president and chief executive of Watts Healthcare Corp., which runs two clinics and a school healthcare program serving 22,000 low-income patients. "How long we can go depends on whether we can get them."

LA Times