Medical Costs
Your editorial “Money Problems From Birth” (Feb. 23) very concisely described a complex problem, and I salute you for your analysis.
Fewer and fewer hospitals have contracted with Medi-Cal as California covers less and less of the costs of providing health care. Estimates are that Medi-Cal covers only 60% of the cost of providing such care. That may be one reason that although 268 hospitals contracted with Medi-Cal in 1985, only 238 did so in 1989, with more facilities deciding to withdraw each year.
Further, the Medi-Cal bureaucracy has made it more difficult to bill and collect monies owed.
Medi-Cal does not “provide appropriate medical care.” Physicians working in their offices and in hospitals provide medical care. Until government recognizes that, we will continue to go from crisis to crisis.
CRAIG G. MYERS
Administrator
Coastal Communities Hospital
Santa Ana
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