Community Health Foundation Loses Contract with Los Angeles County

As expected, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to rescind $3.4 million in county contracts with Community Health Foundation of East Los Angeles, one of the largest private health groups treating the county's uninsured, the Los Angeles Times reports. Supervisors "brushed aside" the clinic system's complaints that it was not given enough time to correct "simple clerical errors and misunderstandings" (Los Angeles Times, 4/4). The Department of Health Services had recommended that supervisors revoke the contract after an undercover investigation "confirmed" that the clinics were turning away uninsured patients who could not pay for services or "improperly" charging them for services. Community Health Foundation Executive Director Rudy Diaz called the undercover investigation "flimsy" and "denied" that the clinics improperly charged the uninsured or refused them care. Although no patients will be denied services if the contract is rescinded, some will have to seek care in other medical facilities, including nearby clinics and the County-USC Medical Center (California Healthline, 4/3).