County OKs $3 Million for UCI Hospital : Indigent care: The one-time contribution to the medical center, which treats more than half the county’s poor patients, is seen as a stopgap. Closure of the hospital has been discussed.

Saying that the county cannot guarantee continued support in the future, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to allocate $3 million for indigent medical services to help out UCI Medical Center.

The allocation was met with gratitude by officials of the University of California system, who had threatened to close down the medical center in Orange because it is sinking financially as it provides care for more than half of the indigent patients in the county. But hospital officials, as well as county supervisors, agreed that the money is only a short-term solution.

While recommending the $3 million allocation, Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said the county is facing its own budget crisis and cannot afford to pay more for indigent health care this year. But, he said, county officials will work closely with the hospital to find more funds or a better way to ease its load of indigent patients.

“It should be noted that these monies are one-time funds and the county cannot guarantee continuing support in the future,” Vasquez said.

“While these funds alone will not solve the fiscal crisis at UCIMC, I believe this effort by the county indicates our support for indigent health care . . . ,” he said. “We hope this commitment will help UCIMC to secure additional funding from the state.”

Vasquez also said the county is working through its health-care task force to better distribute the load of caring for the county’s working poor so that one hospital--UCI Medical Center--is not stuck with the entire burden.

UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason called Tuesday’s board action “positive,” and thanked the supervisors for their prompt action on his urgent request for help a few weeks ago.

But Peltason also said he was glad supervisors want to work toward a plan to spread the burden of caring for the county’s poor among all the hospitals, so that it does not all fall to UCI Medical Center.

“There is no doubt that this hospital will continue to provide care for indigent patients in this county,” he said. “But it can’t do it all by itself, and it needs help and it needs it in a hurry.”

In Sacramento, Roy Brophy, chairman of the UC Board of Regents, said the $3 million from the county is not enough.

“That goes back to what I’ve said before: Indigent care should not be the mission of the University of California,” Brophy said. “We’re grateful we’ll be getting some money on this thing, but indigent care is primarily a county problem.”

Brophy, who sees closure of the medical center as a real possibility, said the regents are still going to discuss the fate of the hospital at their next meeting scheduled for March 14 at UCLA.

“We don’t know how much this ($3 million) will help,” he said. “But we can’t be expected to search out for funds. What we need is a good continuing method of funding. We have to know we’re not going to be living hand to mouth every year.”

Last year, the hospital cared for 10,000 indigent patients, leading to a $10.9-million deficit for the last fiscal year. The losses are expected to be even greater this year because the state cut Orange County’s Indigent Medical Services allotment by 55%, or about $13.5 million, and the supervisors chose not to make up any of the difference until now.

The county had been reimbursing hospitals 22 cents for every dollar they spent to care for the “working poor,” those who have no health insurance but are not poor enough to qualify for other state or federal funds. The reimbursement may be trimmed to between 8 and 15 cents on the dollar this year because of the state budget cut.

County supervisors said officials looked hard to come up with money at a time when the county is facing an $8-million deficit. Of the $3 million that will go to UCI Medical Center, $1.83 million is from the Health Care Agency’s unanticipated one-time revenues. In addition, $1 million will come from state tobacco-tax funds and the final $170,000 from the county’s contingency funds.

“This will not solve the health-care crisis that we are experiencing,” said Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who chairs the health-care task force. “It is but a Band-Aid, and a temporary response. It doesn’t address the long-term problem of health-care access for the poor.”

But, Wieder said, her task force will examine other options through better “health-care management.”

Other supervisors said they voted for the allocation only because it does not commit them for next year.

“I want to say that it’s very, very difficult for the county to do this,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said. “It’s an extremely painful thing for us to do given our short supply of funds. While we can barely do it this year, we cannot do it again next year.”

Supervisor Don R. Roth said: “This is only a one-time infusion of money to assist UCI Medical Center. . . . Good planning is what leads to long-term fixes, but I’m fearful that it’s going to happen again next year. We’ll start working now to try to avoid that.”

Russ Inglish, vice president of the Orange County office of the Hospital Council of Southern California, also said the allocation “indicates a bold move by the board to move forward.”

“These funds provide a short-term solution, but I think we can all work together to find a long-term solution,” he said.

Others said UCI Medical Center makes too great a contribution to the county for local officials to let it go out of business because of cuts in funding from the state.

“Without this university hospital, the care of the entire county would be in great jeopardy,” said Dr. Richard Kammerman, president of the Orange County Medical Assn. “The physicians in Orange County are . . . much in favor of this allocation, and we’re working to make sure we study every effort to find another solution.