Medi-Cal to Test ‘Credit Cards’ Here : Health care: Most county recipients will get them in pilot program designed to thwart fraud and speed payment.

The state will begin issuing Medi-Cal “credit cards” next month to eligible recipients in Orange County, under a state test program designed to eliminate fraud and speed reimbursements.

The new California Benefits Identification Cards will be mailed to most of the 230,000 people in Orange County who are eligible for Medi-Cal health insurance and the almost 42,000 aged, blind or disabled residents who receive benefits under the federal Supplemental Security Income program. Four other counties also will participate, and all of the state’s 5 million Medi-Cal recipients are expected to have the new cards by June.

“It’s a win-win situation every way we look at it, for our clients and for our medical community,” said Angelo Doti, the financial assistance director for the county’s Social Services Agency.

For Medi-Cal clients, Doti said, the plastic card eliminates the bother of answering questions about eligibility, waiting for the paper cards which are reissued every month and having to return to county offices if their benefits run out before the end of the month.

And for hospitals, doctors, dentists and pharmacists who often complain reimbursement is too slow for services they provide to Medi-Cal patients, the credit cards should speed repayment, Doti said. They also will give quick verification of the patient’s eligibility and whether a co-payment is required, he said.

“When a person comes in with (a card) that can be verified easily, the physicians are going to be more likely to accept taking care of that person,” said Dr. Richard Kammerman, a family physician and past president of the Orange County Medical Assn.

Kammerman added that the card also will appeal to clients who “don’t like being treated like cattle. They should have the privilege of being treated like human beings that deserve medical attention.”

Teresa Rackauckas, spokesperson for the Orange County Medical Assn., said she had heard no criticism from the medical community about the new program.

“Anything that reduces the administrative hassles is something that will be well received by physicians,” Rackauckas said.

A magnetic strip on the back of the card--similar to ATM cards--will be run through a machine to link doctors with computer information in Sacramento. The computer also will show if the card has been lost or stolen.

“Right now, (doctors) can only take the client’s word that they are who they are and that they have paid up whatever share of costs they have,” Doti said.

Currently, clients receive new Medi-Cal cards each month with stickers showing the services for which they are eligible. The stickers are peeled off and sent with the billing to Sacramento. If the stickers run out before the end of the month, the patient must ask the county for more or get them from another Medi-Cal recipient, opening the system to fraud and abuse, Doti said.

Stan Rosenstein of the California Department of Health Services said that in addition to controlling fraud and abuse, the computerized system will give the state access to new information such as “improper or potentially deadly prescription usage.”

Kammerman, the family physician, said he hopes the card can be merged into Optima, Orange County’s new managed health care system for the poor.

In addition to Orange, other counties included in the first phase of the Medi-Cal credit card program are Butte, Napa, Santa Clara and Yuba.

Eventually, Doti said, California drivers’ licenses or state identification cards will be plugged into the Medi-Cal information network and serve as photo identification cards for adult members of the program.

“This puts the technology foot in the door for future benefit issuances, such as food stamps and (welfare) payments,” Doti said.

A similar pilot program for food stamps will begin late next year in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and possibly expand to other counties by early 1995.

Doti said he looks forward to all benefits being handled through the state-issued credit cards.

“We literally don’t go a payday (of welfare benefits)--and that means the 1st and 15th of each month--without mail trucks being broken into. Then we have to have the replacement of checks, and merchants getting stuck because (the stolen checks) were forged,” Doti said. “There’s a lot of losers in that system.”