The Yolo County Board of Supervisors urged Partnership Health and Dignity Health to return to the negotiation table with a state mediator to reach an agreement after their contract expired and left thousands across Yolo County in health care limbo.
Partnership HealthPlan provides managed care for Medi-Cal recipients in Yolo County, contracting with a variety of doctors, hospital systems and health care providers to provide care for their members.
The long-standing contract between Partnership and Dignity Health expired on March 31. Despite months of negotiations, neither party has been able to come to an agreement and a new contract has not been issued.
Over 17,000 Yolo County residents and 64,000 patients state-wide have been forced to find new medical providers as a result of the failure to reach a new agreement.
"This is an urgent emergency for us because we have so many patients affected," stressed Supervisor Jim Provenza at last week's meeting.
Representatives from both Partnership Health and Dignity Health were in attendance at the meeting.
According to Amy Turnipseed of Partnership, Partnership Health shared a new proposal with Dignity Health on April 26 and is awaiting a counter proposal.
"We understand how challenging this has been to our Medi-Cal members, the providers that serve our members and the community," Turnipseed said. "Partnership prides itself on paying fair and competitive rates. This is the first time in our 30-year history that we have not been able to reach an agreement with a large hospital system.
"We cannot agree to rates to one system that will hamper our ability to pay fairly other hospitals and providers in our network."
Gena Bravo of Dignity Health argued that the new proposal sent by Partnership on April 26 was "nowhere where we need to be and in fact it's going backwards."
"Their proposed reduction and reimbursement is regressive and marks the lowest proposal we've received from them during this whole six-month negotiation," Bravo said. "As we've talked about in health care we have significant inflation so much so that it comes to about 20% per patient. As a nurse and hospital president, I want to be able to provide the care in Yolo County to bring good doctors that larger counties are able to provide and to do this, to keep our doors open, we need to get rates that are sustainable."
Provenza voiced that he was worried about the pace in which negotiations have been taking place with proposals going back and forth via email at a "snail's pace." All supervisors supported using a mediator to help speed up the process; however Provenza noted that the state informed the board that a state mediator would have to be requested by both parties.
"The bottom line is vulnerable residents are unfairly stuck in the middle of this and in my opinion the parties need to get in a room and figure this out," Supervisor Lucas Frerichs said. "I know there's a lot of daily work that needs to go on so it might not be affecting the rest of Partnership's geography but it's affecting this one and it's still affecting a few other counties too, just not in as large numbers as Yolo. It seems like this would be the top priority for resolution when people's lives, many vulnerable residents' lives, are at risk."
Both Bravo and Turnipseed were given a chance to call their respective CEOs to allow for a verbal commitment that they will get a mediator involved. Bravo relayed that Dignity Health would agree to a non-binding mediation, requesting that Partnership CEO Sonja Bjork be present. Turnipseed reported that Bjork was open to mediation but that it would still need to be taken to the board for approval as they are a public agency.
Supervisor Mary Vixie-Sandy spoke on behalf of the patients who have been forced to find a new primary care physician and whose health care is in the balance.
"This is not right," Vixie-Sandy said. "They should have a voice in this. They should have an opportunity to get the care they have had for as long as they've had it. I really do expect you both to seek a mediator and find a solution that gives these people back an opportunity to select their primary care physician and get the health care that they deserve."
Supervisors ultimately directed staff to ask both parties in writing to enter into mediation.
No comments:
Post a Comment