Southern California Hospitals Address Costs of Treating the Uninsured
The Business Press on Monday examined different strategies Southern California hospitals have taken to address the costs of treating uninsured patients, particularly in hospital emergency departments.
For example, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center over the past decade has helped organize three programs to address the cost of treating indigent, uninsured and underinsured patients. The Pomona Clinic Coalition, which PVHMC helped found, provides health care services at reduced or no cost and enrolls eligible patients in Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and other public programs.
Kathy Roche, a spokesperson for PVHMC, said that Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona will join the coalition this month and added that WUHS has dedicated part of its ED to treating uninsured patients with non-life-threatening conditions.
In addition, Redlands Community Hospital in November 2005 opened a family clinic that provides services to uninsured patients. Jane Dreher, director of public relations for the hospital, said the clinic is intended to divert patients from the hospital ED (Martin Tucker, Business Press, 1/2).