Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/caloptima/)
CalOptima, the county’s health care plan for low-income and elderly residents, will now administer its own mental health care services, after the agency voted to phase out its $41 million-a-year contract with Magellan Health.
A contract dispute between Magellan Healthcare and CalOptima, the county’s health plan for low-income and elderly residents, may have left some of CalOptima’s 710,000 patients without mental health care when, for nine days in July, Magellan refused to process Medi-Cal payment claims.
In a public rebuke, one of Supervisor Andrew Do’s colleagues said Do has been pushing for the takeover because the health plan’s board refused to elect him chairman.
CalOptima provides health care for nearly 800,000 disabled, elderly and low-income Orange County residents. County supervisors are moving to expand their power on its board of directors, but state legislators are moving to block that effort.
Supervisor Shawn Nelson nominated Peter Agarwal, a bank manager and Anaheim Chamber of Commerce board member whom county supervisors have previously appointed to positions like board member of the CalOptima health plan for poor and disabled residents.
Do suggested his “ethnicity” had a role in opposition to him, saying the board’s vice chairman unfairly compared him to his former boss, Janet Nguyen.
Supervisor Andrew Do says he is in “an ideal position” to lead county’s $3.4 billion healthcare plan for the county’s low-income, disabled and elderly residents as it continues to deal with past problems and confronts the promised Obamacare repeal.
But officials for the county’s health plan for low-income and disabled residents said the data was recovered and they don’t believe it was shared with outsiders.
It’s the second time in five years that supervisors have remade board of directors of the $3.2 billion health plan for low-income, elderly and disabled residents, and solidified the medical industry’s control.
Fifteen finalists were chosen this week for the seven open seats on the CalOptima board of directors with the medical industry and political insiders dominating the list.