Countywide : UC Irvine Officials, Medi-Cal Negotiating

UC Irvine officials were continuing Thursday to negotiate a contract with Medi-Cal, Chancellor Jack W. Peltason told the UC Regents at their regular meeting at UCLA.

Although Medi-Cal’s latest proposal was unacceptable, UCI leaders are making a counterproposal that would increase the rate of reimbursement to the university hospital, Peltason said.

He said he hoped Medi-Cal would encourage other Orange County hospitals to participate in the system. “We are prepared to participate fully in a network of health care providers, but UCI Medical Center cannot be the only large hospital doing so.”

Also Thursday, two dozen volunteers from a United Way task force on health care adopted a statement of sympathy with the medical center’s recent problems. The medical center’s new “obstetrical diversion” policy, in which women in labor are turned away when the hospital is full, “represents an act of desperation,” the task force statement says.

For too long, it said, the hospital has been forced to operate “as a de facto county hospital.”

The task force recommended that UCI work with obstetrical patients who are turned away to make sure they receive appropriate, rapid and humane service.

It also recommended that the Orange County Health Care Agency convene a meeting to make arrangements for care of obstetrical patients.

And it asked that county supervisors allocate emergency funds to 12 community clinics for prenatal care.

Explained task force Chairman Chauncey Alexander: “We want to get to officials a set of recommendations that will get something moving.”