Anthem Money a Band-Aid to Clinics
The promise sounds ample: $265 million to improve health care for Californians, wrung from Anthem Inc.’s proposed purchase of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. But community health clinic officials said Tuesday that the money wouldn’t go far in curing the state’s extreme public health needs.
California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi dropped his opposition to the $18.4-billion acquisition Tuesday in exchange for Anthem’s agreement to invest $35 million in healthcare clinics in poor communities and $15 million in California’s Healthy Family and Medi-Cal programs, as well as to devote $15 million to training nurses.
Anthem also agreed to earmark $200 million of its investment portfolio to boost California health services over two decades.
“I think it is a good first step,” said Debra Farmer, chief executive of the Westside Family Health Center in Santa Monica and president of the Los Angeles County Community Clinic Assn.
But medical providers who work where the poorest residents are treated -- the free clinics and medical practices specializing in Medi-Cal -- said the need was enormous and that Anthem’s money wouldn’t last long.
In Los Angeles County last year, the 42 independently owned and operated health clinic corporations wrote off $67.8 million in care they provided for patients with no health insurance or other means to pay. Surveys estimate that 4 million to 6.5 million Californians lack health insurance, about 11% to 18% of the state’s population.
“The reasons why the clinics are in need of increased revenue sources is because there is a tremendous amount of uncompensated care for those without insurance and with no way to pay for healthcare services,” said Scott Franklin, director of development for the Los Angeles County Community Clinic Assn.
The Venice Family Clinic turns away new patients each day because its seven sites lack the capacity to handle them, said Dr. Karen Lamp, a family practitioner who has worked at the clinics for 16 years. They handled more than 99,000 medical visits last year from about 19,500 patients, many suffering from chronic cases of high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma.
“We just don’t have enough room for new appointments,” Lamp said.
Garamendi’s decision to stop fighting Anthem’s acquisition of WellPoint removed the biggest obstacle to creation of the largest U.S. health insurer, which would serve about 28 million people, including 7 million covered by WellPoint’s Blue Cross units in California. Regulators in other states are expected to approve the acquisition.
The funding promised by Anthem would come in a variety of forms. The biggest chunk would be a $100-million commitment to invest in services aimed at improving healthcare in California. It would come on top of a previous pledge to invest $100 million in health services for rural and needy residents.
The $15 million for nurse training would be distributed as scholarships and other support to educate about 500 new nurses a year for five years. The $15 million for the Healthy Family and Medi-Cal programs would allow the state to apply for federal matching funds.
The $35 million for clinics would be distributed for expansions and other capital improvements.
Dr. George Ma, a Chinatown internist, called that sum “a drop in the bucket.”
“What comes after that?” said Ma, who sees an average of 35 patients in a typical 14-hour day. He says that 40% of his patients are on Medi-Cal and that they usually come to him with advanced cases of chronic disease.
“Specialists refuse to see my patients because they lose money on them. They are hard to diagnose and hard to treat,” Ma said. “The biggest problem is the lack of insurance.”
Times staff writer Lisa Girion contributed to this report.
