The Board of Supervisors Tuesday filled the final seat on the 11-member CalOptima board of directors, appointing a nominee of Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s who was one of only two people who filled out a complete application for the post.
Nguyen, the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ representative on the CalOptima board, nominated Theresa Boyd for the four-year term that expires in 2017. Boyd was approved on a voice vote with no discussion.
She fills the “consumer seat” that was created as part of Nguyen’s overhaul of the board and had been vacant since January 2012, when it officially became part of the board.
Boyd is a former intern for Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, and in 2007 received Orange County’s Most Beloved Mental Health Advocate proclamation from Nguyen.
County Health Care Agency records show only nine people applied the first time the supervisors tried to fill the seat. A second attempt this year drew interest from five people, but only Boyd and one other applicant completed their applications.
CalOptima receives $1.5 billion in federal and state funds each year to operate as a health plan for about 460,000 low-income, disabled or elderly county residents.
Boyd fills the seat reserved for someone who uses CalOptima’s services. But two-thirds of those who qualify for the program are children, and Nguyen’s ordinance was written to bar parents of those children from applying.
A majority of the other 10 CalOptima board seats are filled by members of the medical industry and county government. Two of the 10 represent nonhealth care private industry.
All of the board members are unpaid volunteers except Nguyen and the directors of the county Health Care and Social Services agencies. Those three are required to serve on the board as part of their county jobs.
Please contact Tracy Wood directly at twood@voiceofoc.org and follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/tracyVOC.