{"id":62121,"date":"2024-01-15T11:37:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T19:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=62121"},"modified":"2024-01-15T11:37:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T19:37:02","slug":"bridging-health-gaps-in-la-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=62121","title":{"rendered":"Bridging Health Gaps in LA County"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As wealth and health disparities widen nationwide, California is bridging the gap by making care accessible to all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As wealth and health disparities widen nationwide, California is bridging the gap by making care accessible to all.<\/p>\n

On January 1, California expanded Medi-Cal, its version of Medicaid, to all low-income individuals regardless of immigration status. This expansion is uniquely impactful in LA County, which will see the closure of its no-cost low-income health program My Health LA (MHLA) at the end of January, since all MHLA patients will now be eligible for Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n

At a Thursday, Jan. 11 briefing cosponsored by\u00a0MHLA<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0California Department of Health Care Services<\/a>, LA County health workers and patients discussed what this transition from restricted (i.e. emergency) benefits to full coverage means for health access overall \u2014 especially for those who never had full coverage in the past.<\/p>\n

Medi-Cal expanding, My Health LA sunsetting<\/h2>\n

This dramatic expansion of Medi-Cal \u2014 the last in a series which began in 2015 to include children, then in 2020 to young adults, and then in 2022 to older adults \u2014 \u201copens the doors to full insurance for all ages for all low income undocumented immigrants,\u201d said Anna Gorman, COO of Community Programs at MHLA.<\/p>\n

As a result, an estimated 700,000 individuals statewide will get full-scope MediCal, including \u201cmental health care, medical care, vision, dental, long term care, substance use disorder services, transportation and in-home care,\u201d she continued. \u201cPreviously, this population could only get emergency or restricted Medi-Cal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This expansion coincides with the sunsetting of My Health LA, a decade-long partnership between LA County DHS and over 50 community clinics countywide that allowed hundreds of thousands of low-income uninsured residents to receive primary or preventive care at these clinics while coming to DHS for emergency or hospital care.<\/p>\n

Now that participants can get full Medi-Cal, they can apply through their community clinics, or by calling the LA County Department of Public Health at 833-540-0473, Gorman said. \u201cFor state-funded benefits, your information is only used to determine if you qualify; state laws protect your privacy, and using benefits won\u2019t hurt your immigration status except for a few small exceptions \u2014 a residential nursing home, or mental health institution care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started my job almost five years ago,\u201d she added, \u201cI said I hoped that we would not need this program much longer, and today we\u2019re finally here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life-changing health access<\/h2>\n

A transition to full coverage like this \u201cchanges people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Louise McCarthy, President and CEO of\u00a0Community Clinic Association of LA County<\/a>. \u201cA couple decades ago, I was in the hospital looking at a $22,000 medical bill. I was uninsured and had no way to pay, but it turned out I was eligible for Medi-Cal and enrolled that day. That bill went away. I am now a homeowner, an employer. I went to graduate school. That would not have happened with medical debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like medical access, medical debt too can change someone\u2019s life, \u201csteering them down a path of persistent poverty, and people can avoid it if they get the full care they\u2019re entitled to \u2014 even without insurance, there\u2019s still care available at these centers\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The need for such care is rising countywide.<\/p>\n

Carmen Muniz, COO of\u00a0Family Health Care Center of Greater Los Angeles<\/a>, said her center alone had 2,500 assigned MHLA patients between ages 26 and 49 in October 2023, amounting to 2,239 visits and a 24% growth of patients from the previous year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo patient should feel that because they have limited income, they can\u2019t receive the care they need,\u201d Muniz said, \u201cnor should your immigration status be a barrier for you to receive quality medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full care \u201cis like a gift\u201d<\/h2>\n

Amalia Torres, a patient of Muniz\u2019 clinic since 2001 who transitioned from My Health LA to Medi-Cal on January 1, said this transition from restricted to full coverage will give her a chance to newly access dental care, and emergency situations \u2014 like a kidney stone diagnosis she received in the past \u2014 will no longer be as threatening.<\/p>\n

Having come to the U.S. from Puebla, Mexico 22 years ago, she received prenatal care for all three of her children at FHCCGLA, and said the new eligibility of her husband, too \u2014 the sole source of income in her household \u2014 gave her great peace of mind.<\/p>\n

Guadalupe Ramirez, a\u00a0Maternal Health and Child Care Access<\/a>\u00a0(MHCCA) patient for nearly 15 years \u2014 since the Affordable Care Act \u2014 said full coverage granted her son life-saving heart surgeries, and now that she\u2019s eligible for it alongside her three children it\u2019s been \u201clike a gift. My priorities are always on my children, and knowing I won\u2019t have to worry about expensive care for myself is a true weight lifted off my shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lorena Prieto, Managed Care Lead at\u00a0Eisner Health<\/a>\u00a0in LA County, added that as Medi-Cal expands, some state counties like LA are transitioning from some \u201cmanaged care\u201d or primary provider insurance plans to others.<\/p>\n

As this happens, local clinics are also making sure that patients already getting the care they need \u201cremain with their medical homes through the transition,\u201d Prieto explained. So far, \u201cover 90% of our My Health LA patients are successfully enrolled into full Medi-Cal, and they already have access to crucial benefits that weren\u2019t covered before \u2014 like hearing aids, glasses, walkers, canes, wheelchairs and timely mental health services.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cMedi-Cal enrollment is not subject to public charge; nobody needs to fear receiving the benefits they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celia Valdez, MHCCA Director of Outreach and Education, emphasized the importance of mental health care under full Medi-Cal for children and parents, especially those facing financial difficulties and those impacted by the pandemic \u201cwith the stress that presents. Knowing that our families no longer have to choose between, say, an invasive surgery, or even getting new glasses, and putting food on the table or paying your utility bill \u2026 It makes me feel good to be a Californian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Jan 15, 2024 As...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62122,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62121\/revisions\/62122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}