SAN FRANCISCO — UC Irvine officials threatened Thursday to stop treating the county's poor at UCI Medical Center--other than for emergencies--in order to save the hospital from financial disaster.
Chancellor Jack W. Peltason told the University of California Board of Regents that the debt-burdened medical center in Orange is the victim of a breakdown in the mechanism for treating the county's poorest patients.
"Our hospital is in jeopardy because of what can only be described as a collapse of the health care system established in Orange County to provide for the needs of the indigent and the working poor," Peltason said.
The medical center, which has only 6% of the county's hospital beds, is treating more than half of the county's indigent patients, he said. The hospital, which has a total of 493 beds, is reimbursed for less than half of what it costs to care for those patients.
As a result, Peltason said, every additional Medi-Cal patient who enters the facility adds to its rising operating deficit. That deficit is projected to top $13 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30, and it could reach $15 million next year.
If UCI cannot obtain more funds from Medi-Cal--the university is seeking a 17% increase--and cap the number of such patients it must treat, the medical center will have no choice but to end its contractual relationship with the state-run medical program, Peltason said. In that case, the center would treat only those indigent patients who are critically ill or about to give birth.
Non-emergencies now represent about 15% of the hospital's Medi-Cal caseload, university officials said.
Deciding to end the Medi-Cal contract is something the university would not "do lightly," Peltason said.
"Such a termination would disrupt our teaching programs, threaten the health of those we serve and heighten short-term financial difficulties as we make a transition to more private patients," he said. "But it is an option that we must and are seriously considering."
Questions, Criticism
UCI's declaration was generally well received by the regents, who met at UC San Francisco. They asked university officials about the continuing deficits for the medical center, and several criticized the county government for not having done something to distribute the burden of treating non-paying patients among more hospitals.
