Just a quick post today with an update on the fantastic success of the "lemonade from lemons" program that community clinics and Contra Costa Health Services set up in the wake of the April, 2009, Board of Supes' decision to close Basic Health Care coverage for undocumented immigrants.
The 20-second version is that the program, which streamlines patients who would have been eligible for BHC into appropriate primary care at their choice of community clinic, has been operating at record levels of demand in 2010. Click here for a fact sheet with more detail.
And as we take the opportunity to point out every time we see a Supervisor, problems that popped up within the program's first year are starting to come under control due to strong efforts by community clinics and the County.
A little while ago, the Consortium kicked off a series of meetings between La Clinica and CCHS providers aimed at creating a forum for working out patient transfer protocol - particularly complex when a patient is discharged from County care but still in need of specialty care services not offered by community clinics.
One great development so far: CCHS instituted a policy to allow 30 days of post-hospitalization coverage for undocumented patients discharged from CCRMC. This is huge.
Also: telecommunications technology is coming to the rescue: La Clínica providers now have a CCHS provider contact list that allows them to connect directly with each other in a timely manner. And CCHS providers have access to a messaging service at La Clínica where they can leave messages for clinic providers about prospective patients that will be handed-off fromone system to the other.
In short, things are Working. And that, when it comes to the health care world, is a pretty big deal.
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