SANTA PAULA : Medi-Cal at Issue in Building Approval

Several members of the Santa Paula City Council said they will attempt to block developers from constructing a medical office building near a proposed low-income senior home if the doctors will not accept Medi-Cal.

Speaking at a public hearing on Monday, City Councilman John Melton said plans for the $500,000 medical building have deteriorated since the council first heard a proposal for the project, which was touted by developers as the perfect adjunct to the 150-suite Santa Paulan apartments.

“In 1986, we had grandiose plans,” Melton said of the project, to be built by Prairie Pacific Investments and occupied by five physicians. “We have to do the best we can to make this happen. All the people in health care services should accept Medi-Cal.”

Two general practitioners in the group said they do not accept Medi-Cal because of its poor reimbursement rate. One of them, Dr. Richard J. Tushla, said he stopped taking new Medi-Cal patients five years ago.

“It’s really not economical to see Medi-Cal patients,” Tushla, a partner in the medical building, said in November. Also in the building will be a dentist and two optometrists who do take Medi-Cal.

Kay Wilson-Bolton, a consultant for the developers, said changes in the economy have affected the proposal.

Wilson-Bolton said 81% of local patients eligible for Medi-Cal go to the Ventura County Public Health Agency on Main Street in Santa Paula, 9% go to the Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura and 10% go to the one private-practice doctor in Santa Paula who accepts Medi-Cal.

Based on those figures, she asked the City Council to change the property’s zoning from residential to commercial to allow construction to begin.

However, Melton said the project was originally backed by the council so Santa Paulan residents would not have to travel to the doctor.

He said he would not vote for the change until the two doctors began accepting Medi-Cal.

“If they are not willing to do that, maybe we don’t need to change the zoning,” Melton said.

The issue was tabled until January.