Health care leaders across the central San Joaquin Valley fear that federal cuts to Medicaid and state reductions in Medi-Cal benefits represent a “tsunami” of changes that jeopardize the financial stability of hospitals and clinics, and threaten residents’ access to care in the region.
A recent San Joaquin Valley market report published by the California Health Care Foundation found that among officials from hospitals, health clinics and public health leaders, “the sense was one of widespread anxiety” after changes that sharply limit eligibility for state and federal health benefits for undocumented residents.
Yegian Health Insights regional lead Len Finocchio, who interviewed more than two dozen health leaders in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Tulare counties, said “all of the interviewees felt there would be an increase in the number of uninsured and reductions in both medical benefits and [insurance] provider payments” to hospitals and clinics. Finocchio was author of the report for the California Health Care Foundation…