SANTA PAULA : Doctors’ Office Plan Draws Criticism
A proposal by four doctors to build medical offices next to a low-income housing project for seniors in Santa Paula has been criticized by a planning commissioner because two of the physicians do not accept MediCal.
At a public hearing Tuesday, Santa Paula Planning Commissioner Shirley Hara said the $500,000 office center to be built on Santa Barbara Street may not benefit all residents of the 150-suite Santa Paulan apartments, which are being built nearby, even though the medical offices have been billed by one of the developers as “the perfect adjunct” to the apartments.
“It’s a concept I don’t understand,” said Hara after the commission voted 6 to 1 in favor of the medical offices. “If they are going to have an office next to low-income housing, and they are going to imply they will take care of them, they should make some arrangements to see them.”
Dr. Richard J. Tushla, a partner in the medical office project, said MediCal’s poor reimbursement rate was one of the reasons he stopped accepting new MediCal patients in 1986.
“It’s really not economical to see MediCal patients,” said Tushla, one of two general practitioners in the office who won’t take state-sponsored medical insurance. “It’s not our planned policy (to take MediCal) right now.”
The other two tenants in the office will be optometrists who do accept MediCal.
Santa Paulan developer Rodney Fernandez said the senior tenants would be in the very-low- to low-income category, with incomes of less than $25,000 a year.
The project will go before the City Council at its Dec. 2 hearing.
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