L.A. Health System Preparing for Influx in Insured Patients

The Los Angeles County health system is organized around specialty care, not population need, and long wait times and geographic distance affect care delivery, according to Health Management Associates, a firm hired by the county to assess its health system. Public and private health facilities in the county are preparing to handle the millions of people who will gain health insurance through the federal health reform law. HMA recommended dissolving the county's Office of Managed Care and partnering instead with L.A. Care, which manages public health insurance plans for 800,000 people.

• "LA County Braces for Crowded Hospitals as Medi-Cal Expands" (Evans, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 5/9).