County Commits $2 Million for AIDS Hospices in Surprise Move

In a move that delighted supporters of AIDS hospice programs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to commit $2 million from next year’s budget to pay for such programs countywide.

The pledge from the five-member board, which quadrupled the county’s current level of support for hospice programs, included a $400,000 commitment toward establishing a 25-bed facility at Barlow Hospital in Elysian Park.

Members of the AIDS Hospice Foundation, who hope to establish the program at Barlow, had been seeking the county’s financial pledge to enable them to compete for additional money from other governmental and private sources.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, whose district includes the Barlow site, had pressed his colleagues for a financial commitment to that particular facility.

“It is unusual to get the board to commit in advance, but we know the need is there,” Edelman said. “We know the cost is cheaper, and the setting is right. So let’s take advantage of that and give them the opportunity to go ahead and get their program moving by July.”

What Edelman got was not only support for a hospice program in his own district, but a commitment to provide an equal amount of money to establish hospice programs in each of the four other supervisorial districts.

The compromise reflected some political pie-sharing, but in voting for a promise of countywide funding, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the compromise made practical sense in the face of an AIDS epidemic that will result in more patients seeking alternatives to hospital care, such as hospices and in-home care.

“It seems to me that we are going to be increasing hospice care in the future and we might as well begin addressing the need today through proper planning and begin designating those revenues for the future budgets,” said Antonovich, who called hospice care more economical in the long run than hospital care.

County health officials have said that the daily cost of $138 for a patient at Barlow compares favorably to hospital costs of $750 a day. But Supervisor Kenneth Hahn pointed out that the benefits are not only monetary.’

“This is more important than (financial) savings,” Hahn said. “It’s giving a person who is going to die some comfortable surroundings during his last few days upon this Earth.”

Hospice supporters said they were both pleased and surprised by the vote.

“I don’t think anyone has ever gone into the Board of Supervisors and asked for $400,000 and come out with $2 million,” said Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Hospice Foundation.

Although his group will receive only a portion of the $2 million, Weinstein said the county’s $400,000 commitment to Barlow will mean that his group can now compete for an additional $500,000 in government grants including $200,000 from Los Angeles. The county pledge also will help attract private donations, which so far total $200,000, Weinstein said.

Robert Gates, director of the Department of Health Services, told the board Tuesday that he “would be a little concerned about ($2 million) as an up-front commitment at this point in time” because of uncertainty over exactly how all the money would be spent. But Gates stressed that his agency is committed to hospice care.

The health department has recommended that the board approve contracts with two other hospice facilities, one run by Hospice Los Angeles/Long Beach and another by AIDS Project Los Angeles. Those contracts will be before the board in the next few weeks, Gates said.