Centinela to Close Drug Rehabilitation Program : Treatment: Hospital officials say fewer patients are seeking help as insurance firms cut reimbursements to the chemical dependency unit.

Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood is shutting its chemical dependency program because of reductions in insurance reimbursements, a hospital spokesman said Thursday.

The spokesman, Paul Silva, declined to say when the program will close. The hospital released a brief written statement saying that it has made arrangements to have patients in the program enter other programs in the Los Angeles area.

“Centinela Hospital has discontinued its chemical dependency program as a result of the fact that insurance companies have severely reduced their reimbursement for these services,” said the five-sentence statement.

“The hospital’s chemical dependency program has only had a few patients per day for the last year, which is not an optimal way to run a chemical dependency program,” the statement said. Silva said that Centinela Hospital would have no further comment.

The closing of such programs is a trend in California and nationwide, said Lori Aldrete, vice president for public affairs at the California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems in Sacramento. Because of reduced insurance coverage, Aldrete said, hospitals are finding that fewer patients are able to pay for treatment.

The Centinela program, known as LifeStarts, has been housed in a 24-bed unit at the 403-bed hospital. Those familiar with the treatment described it as an adult recovery program for people addicted to alcohol or drugs.

A Los Angeles County health official, Robert Karp, said Thursday he did not know the program was closing. The county normally receives an application from a hospital regarding such changes, said Karp, assistant chief of the health facilities division of the county Department of Health Services.

Long Beach Memorial Medical Center shut a similar treatment program in May, 1992. The hospital found that private insurers and employers did not like the program setup, said spokesman Ron Yukelson.

“We were told we needed to have 7- to 14-day programs” rather than the 28-day program favored by many professionals, Yukelson said. “We didn’t want to run a diluted service.”