State Budget Impasse Slows Medi-Cal Changes in Sonoma County
Efforts to roll out a Medi-Cal managed care system in Sonoma County have fallen behind schedule as a side effect of the ongoing state budget impasses, county health care officials told the board of supervisors on Tuesday, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
Cliff Coates, program director for the county health department, said that lingering questions about Medi-Cal reimbursement rates have stopped the Medi-Cal HMO's proposed sponsor, Partnership Health Plan, from expanding.
The managed care plan was expected to launch this summer, but now it is unlikely to launch until mid-2009, according to local health officials.
Partnership Health Plan currently operates in Napa, Solano and Yolo counties, and Lake and Marin counties also plan to join Partnership Health Plan (Rose, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 8/13).