COUNTYWIDE : Health Officials May Lose Tobacco Funds

Ventura County health officials are concerned that they will have to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars from a state tobacco tax fund designated to finance medical care for the poor.

County officials say they will have to return the money if physicians do not claim their share of the county’s $5.6-million allotment of the state’s Proposition 99 fund. Of that amount, about $1 million reimburses physicians for treating indigent patients.

Until recently, physicians who provided indigent care have been required by law to prove that they tried for six months to collect payment from their indigent patients before submitting a reimbursement claim.

“Originally, when the law was enacted, if a doctor saw an indigent patient, they had to wait half a year to bill the county,” said county Health Care Agency Director Phillipp Wessels. But in April, the state Legislature reduced the waiting time to three months, he said.

Wessels said of the $1 million available for physician reimbursement, only 20 claims totaling $11,337 were submitted as of June 4.

The county will have to return unused money to the state by June 30.

In a report to be considered by the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Wessels said he is concerned that if the county does not use its full allotment this year, it will receive less of the state’s tobacco initiative fund next year.

In distributing the tobacco tax revenue, Wessels says county officials have reimbursed the Ventura County Medical Center $1.6 million for indigent health care and arranged payments of $1.8 million to the other seven hospitals in the county.

The tobacco fund has also subsidized the county’s Public Health Department to provide measles vaccinations to 3,000 schoolchildren. It also provided furnishings and equipment for waiting rooms and examination rooms at clinics.