Legal Aid Society Sues County to Keep Children’s Health Program Alive : Medicine: Organization claims Child Health and Disability Prevention program must be maintained, despite a $600,000 reduction in funding by the state.

The Legal Aid Society of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the county to force the continuation of a children’s health program crippled by state funding cuts.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Superior Court, argues that the county is legally obligated to support the Child Health and Disability Prevention program, even though tax funding for the program has been reduced.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are an 11-month-old boy named Martin whose hearing is endangered by chronic ear infections; a 2-year-old named Ignacio who needs a year of preventive treatment after a positive tuberculosis test; and his 8-month-old brother, Juan, who has been treated under the county program for a life-threatening abscess in his throat.

Other plaintiffs may be added as doctors turn away more of the 1,000 children a month who normally use the program, said Legal Aid attorney Rosemary Bishop.

Many poor children covered by the program have been denied medical care since the county shifted Dec. 1 to a more restricted method of reimbursing doctors. As a result, many doctors have dropped out of the program, said Legal Aid attorney Sana Loue.

County Health Services Department officials said the program is being modified but still provides medical care and may be back up to full service by late next month if a request for renewed state funding is approved.

No court date has been set for the lawsuit, but Loue said she hopes to have a hearing early next month.

The county program provides physical examinations and follow-up treatment for children from poor families who do not qualify for the state’s MediCal program because their incomes are slightly too high or their members are undocumented aliens.

Last year, 52,000 children in the county were screened and 13,000 received follow-up treatment in the county program.

However, funding for the program, which comes from state cigarette taxes, was cut from $2.7 million in fiscal 1991 to $2.1 million for the fiscal year that began in July.

Running out of money, the county notified doctors Dec. 9 that they will no longer be paid according to their bills but would receive a share of whatever is left in the pot, ranging from nothing to the MediCal rate.

Only about 90 of the 400 doctors, dentists, pharmacies, laboratories and clinics that had participated in the program have accepted the new payment arrangement, but more are expected to sign on by the deadline Monday, program coordinator Phyllis Elkind said.

The county does not yet know how many doctors will agree to continue providing care at the reduced rate of reimbursement, said Bob Haebel, assistant deputy director of public health. Haebel said many children probably will experience delays in treatment in the meantime.

However, he said the response from doctors so far has been encouraging.

Haebel said he has requested additional funding of $1 million from the state Health Services Department and expects an answer by the end of next month.