County Cuts Funds to Health Clinic

One of the largest East Los Angeles clinics serving poor people will no longer receive county money to treat the uninsured because undercover county investigators said they discovered it was improperly charging destitute patients for care while also charging the county for those same services.

The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to kill Community Health Foundation of East Los Angeles’ $3.4-million contracts, brushing aside complaints from the organization that it was not given enough time to investigate and correct the problems. The nonprofit group says the irregularities unearthed by the county were simple clerical errors and misunderstandings and insists that it does not charge the uninsured for health care.