County Facing Health Care Cuts in Budget Stalemate

More than 6,000 low-income patients could be turned away each month from several Los Angeles County health facilities if a budgetary stalemate that jeopardizes $29.1 million in programs is not resolved by the governor and Legislature, county officials said Monday.

Faced with the possible loss of funds, county Health Director Robert C. Gates presented more than a dozen proposed budget cutbacks that would, among other things, eliminate more than 150 hospital beds from four hospitals and nearly $10 million from a number of outpatient programs. Most of the cuts would not occur until after Oct. 1, he said.

Gates told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that as many as 800 Health Services Department jobs also face elimination if the state funding is not restored.

Adhering to state requirements, the supervisors ordered hearings into the proposed cuts to begin on Aug. 20, shortly after the Legislature reconvenes after its summer recess. Supervisors made it plain Monday that they hoped area lawmakers would “feel the heat” from the hearings and find some solution to the budgetary deadlock.

The health services shortfall arose when Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed cost-of-living increases for the medically indigent adult program for working people who cannot otherwise afford care. Gates had counted on $29.1 million from the annual increase, as well as a special fund to augment the medically indigent program.

Since the county assumed responsibility from the state for the program several years ago, the state has not provided full reimbursement.

While expressing “every hope” that the funds will be restored once the Legislature reconvenes Aug. 11, Gates said he was nevertheless forced to propose reductions “based on a variety of factors, including minimal impact on patients. . . .”

Hardest hit under Gates’ proposals would be County-USC Medical Center. Services at various general, medical and specialty clinics serving about 10,000 patients monthly would be sliced 20%, for a savings of $475,000 a month, Gates said. Also cut at the medical center would be 64 inpatient beds that normally would serve about 400 patients monthly. Cuts there and at other county facilities could reduce service to about 6,000 patients a month, Gates said.

Some of these include:

- Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, where 20 inpatient beds that normally serve about 100 patients each month, would be cut under Gates’ plan. Closed at the medical center would be various outpatient clinics that treat about 400 patients a month for heart, nerve and diabetic problems.

- Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey would lose a 25-bed drug detoxification center.

- Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance would lose 29 surgery beds serving about 90 patients a month. Another 1,908 patients who use various clinics at the center would also have to find help elsewhere if the facilities are closed, as suggested by Gates.

- Ambulatory care-surgery programs at El Monte and H. Claude Hudson comprehensive health centers would be eliminated. Such services as elective abortions, vasectomies and clinic visits for gynecological problems are provided at the two facilities to about 270 patients monthly.

- High Desert Hospital in Lancaster faces elimination of, or reduction of services in, several clinics, as well as the closure of a public pharmacy.