MODESTO BEE
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By KEN CARLSON
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: September 4, 2005, 04:21:03 AM PDT

Stanislaus County's health clinics would turn away some patients under a three-year plan to deal with Health Services Agency deficits that range from $9 million to $10 million a year.
Under recommendations released Aug. 24, county clinics would accommodate 53,000 fewer patient visits, a 20 percent reduction in annual patient volume.

An estimated 17,700 patients would have to go elsewhere for care.

The county would sell the former Stanislaus Medical Center property on Scenic Drive in Modesto and move services to other clinics.

If the agency deficit is not significantly reduced by the third year, the plan calls for county leaders to consider an even more painful measure of serving only medically indigent adults.

That would threaten to cut off more than 60,000 low-income and disabled people covered by Medi-Cal and other programs.

A committee made up of county staff, Supervisors Ray Simon and Tom Mayfield and local physicians developed the recommendations during four months of study. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to con-sider the recommendations Sept. 13 and would have to hold subsequent public hearings before cutting services.

The recommendations are drawing fire from health advocates and some in the medical community.

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