Orange County Awarded Over $50 Million To Expand Health Care Coverage

(Santa Ana) – Orange County has been selected by State officials to receive more than $50 million over a three year period to expand health care coverage for low-income, uninsured adults.

As a result of today’s announcement, Orange County will receive $16.9 million per year for a three year period that begins September 1, 2007. The additional Federal funding will be used to expand and improve the County’s Medical Services for Indigents (MSI) program, which assists low-income adults 21 to 64 years of age who do not qualify for Medi-Cal or other programs.

“This is great news for Orange County and helps us expand health care coverage to more adults in our communities,” said Julie Poulson, Health Care Agency (HCA) Director. “This effort was successful because of the support provided by the Board of Supervisors and the excellent proposal developed with financial support from the Health Funders Partnership of Orange County. The State’s application process was very competitive, and Orange County is one of only ten counties to be funded.”

The Health Funders Partnership, a collaboration of various organizations that provide health grants within the County, provided funding for consultants who assisted in developing the proposal.

Additional enrollees will be accepted into the MSI program beginning September 1st and the scope of services provided under MSI will be expanded to include primary care and preventive services for all enrollees, including those previously participating in the MSI program.

MSI enrollees will also be linked to a primary care clinic or physician, which will serve as their “medical home.” The medical home program is designed to help reduce use of hospital emergency rooms for non-emergency care. Other enhancements will include disease management programs to benefit patients with chronic health conditions and a web-based health information system to improve the availability of information for doctors and other health care providers.

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