Uninsured cost ERs in Calif. millions

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Treating the increasing number of uninsured patients in California emergency rooms has cost hundreds of millions of dollars and the losses likely will force more emergency rooms to close, according to a new report by the California Medical Association released Tuesday.

During the fiscal year that ended June 2002, the latest year for which data are available, emergency rooms and physicians lost a total of $635 million, an 18 percent increase in losses from the previous year, the report said.

The problem was most severe in Los Angeles County, where emergency rooms lost $143 million, the largest financial setback of any county in the state, the report said. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in San Bernardino County was hit hardest, losing $10.5 million.

"No businesses can survive these conditions," Dr. S. Daniel Higgins, an emergency room physician and president of Los Angeles County Medical Association, said in a phone interview. "Our widgets are people, and they're going to be get discarded if we don't fix this problem."

Nearly 80 percent of the emergency rooms in the state reported a financial loss. Losses averaged $80 for every patient who received treatment in emergency rooms.

Of the $635 million, emergency room losses accounted for $460 million while physicians, whose services are billed separately, took a $175 million loss.

Since 2000, 28 emergency rooms in California have closed, including six in Los Angeles County just this year. The report was issued as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to tentatively approve closing the trauma center at a problem-plagued hospital there.

The California Medical Association is pushing Proposition 67, an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot that would provide $500 million a year for hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms through a surcharge on telephone service. The doctors' group is the largest state medical association in the country and advocates for the improvement of health care.

But the group's officials warned Tuesday the measure is merely a quick fix that won't solve the problems in the long term.

D. Jack Lewin, chief executive officer of the California Medical Association, said that emergency room closures effect services and further increase the likelihood of patients being transported to far--off medical facilities.

"We have a crisis in California that we're trying to get across to our legislators," he said. "We face an unraveling of our health care system."