County Clinic System, Once in the Red, Is in the Pink

The Ventura County Medical Center has recovered from its severe financial crisis and expects to post a $1-million surplus this July, a county report said Tuesday.

This is a far cry from last summer’s prognosis, when county officials faced a $12-million health-care deficit and contemplated dismantling key parts of the public health care system, including six satellite clinics that served many elderly, disabled and indigent county residents.

The Ventura County Health Care Agency’s director, Phillipp K. Wessels, said the agency was able to turn its finances around by reducing operating expenses, laying off 200 of its 1,200 employees and computerizing its billing system.

At Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Board of Supervisors said the report was an auspicious sign that Ventura County’s health-care problems are on the mend.

‘I’m Satisfied’

“I’m satisfied that we’re making steady progress,” said Supervisor John Flynn.

But health-care officials emphasized that the county still logs up to $10 million in annual losses because it only receives 60 cents from the state on each dollar it spends for health care for the needy.

And the fate of the county’s clinics remains undecided. Health care administrators have commissioned a consultant to study the operations and finances of the clinics and will make recommendations to the supervisors after the report is issued in April, Wessels said.

The health-care agency has a $73-million annual budget and includes the medical center, six outlying clinics, two mental health facilities, a drug and alcohol program and the county coroner’s office.

In the last year, health officials have moved to cut costs within the agency by laying off 200 employees--100 of them at the medical center--and eliminating 35 of the center’s 145 beds, said Pierre Durand, the agency’s director of financial administration.

The agency also switched from manual claims processing to a computerized system, streamlined the billing department and hired a collection agency to bring in delinquent bills. County officials also set up a system of checks and balances that they hope will avoid a repetition of the problems.

Dr. John Ford, a family physician with the West Ventura Family Care Center, one of the county health system’s clinics, said the cuts and procedural changes have not affected the quality of care at his clinic.

“The cost of care has not decreased at all and . . . we’re functioning just about identical to before the crisis,” Ford said. “We have to go through a few more bureaucratic hoops for a few things, but everyone who has needed their medicine has gotten it.”

Early in 1987, county officials were shocked to learn that the health-care agency had fallen millions of dollars behind in paying off loans from the county and had fallen two years behind on billing.

They say now that about $10 million in old billings probably will be written off because they cannot be collected. The health agency bills issues bills for about $58 million annually.

To sift through the morass, county officials last January brought in Durand, a certified public accountant and chief deputy auditor for the controller’s office.

Losses Understated

Durand found that losses in previous years had been understated and that county supervisors had failed to learn the extent of the problems because the agency was not required to inform the county of its profit and loss each month.

He said that, at the peak of the fiscal problems, the county lent the agency $18 million, scrounging it from reserves and trimming budgets in other departments by 10%. The entire amount was repaid by December, 1987, and all billing is now current, he added.

In July, with the agency’s audit under way, Dr. Sarah L. Miller, the head of the county health care agency, retired. She is now deputy director of Santa Barbara County’s health care services and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Wessels, 47, a health-care executive from Modesto, replaced Miller in October after a nationwide search by the county for a candidate.