San Mateo County Adds Staff Positions for Chronic Disease Pilot
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved $5.3 million to add 57 positions as a first step in an effort to provide affordable health care services to county residents, the San Francisco Examiner reports (Barak, San Francisco Examiner, 8/15).
Most of the new staff positions will be nurses and patient-services assistants based at the public San Mateo Medical Center. Other positions include:
- Physicians;
- Mental health care workers;
- Pharmacists; and
- Rehabilitation therapists.
The positions are part of a pilot program that will focus on residents with chronic illnesses. A $31 million, three-year federal grant is funding the effort.
Because the effort receives federal funding, enrollment is limited to documented legal residents whose incomes do not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level and have less than $15,000 in assets (Gordon, MediaNews/San Jose Mercury News, 8/15).
Enrollment could begin as early as Sept. 1 (San Francisco Examiner, 8/15).
County officials see the pilot program as a first step in a larger effort to rein in the county's increasing health care costs.
Last month, supervisors preliminarily approved recommendations for a $165 million program to ensure access to health care services for county residents whose incomes do not exceed 400% of the poverty level (MediaNews/San Jose Mercury News, 8/15).