Court Lifts Order Blocking Medi-Cal Fee Cuts

A state appeals court has withdrawn its order blocking Gov. George Deukmejian’s 10% cut in Medi-Cal fees to doctors and other health care providers.

The court’s reversal Friday spurred Deukmejian’s Health Services Department to announce plans to implement the cuts immediately. They were to have taken effect last Sunday but were blocked by the court order three days earlier.

“It was a very hard decision for Dr. (Kenneth) Kizer to go with the cuts, but based on the situation at hand, with the expenditures in the program, we will go ahead with our original plan,” said department spokesman Bill Ihle.

The California Medical Assn., which filed suit contending the cuts were illegal, was unaware of the department’s plans when President Gladden Elliott issued a statement saying he hoped the Administration would delay action “until other avenues have been explored.”

The 1st District Court of Appeal issued a brief order denying the CMA’s request to overturn the cuts and lifting its stay of Jan. 29. The court did not comment on the merits of the suit but said it could be refiled in Superior Court.

A Superior Court judge in Sacramento has blocked the 10% fee cut for pharmacists, in response to a suit by the California Pharmacists Assn. Ihle said he believes the order applies to pharmacists statewide but not to any other Medi-Cal fees.

The cuts in fees the state pays doctors, hospitals and others to care for poor people will save the state $18.7 million in the last five months of the 1986-1987 fiscal year, the Administration says. They are to be followed by proposals to save another $150 million in 1987-88. Deukmejian has announced a $280-million deficit in the $5-billion Medi-Cal program, which serves about 3 million low-income people.