SACRAMENTO – The California Ambulance Association (CAA), which represents the state’s emergency ambulance service providers, is denouncing the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) decision to cut Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, and calls into question DHCS’ continued practice of increasing costs on insured patients and diminishing the quality of emergency 9-1-1 care for all Californians in order to subsidize the Medi-Cal program.

The state’s most recent cuts will reduce Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for paramedic level emergency ambulance transports to $104.

This rate is below the 1998 reimbursement level and is hundreds of dollars below the hard costs of providing the service.

Unlike other nonemergency health care providers, ambulance services who treat and transport Californians in a medical emergency, must take all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“What is happening to our industry is no different than if the State forced all grocery stores to give out half of their food for free and then told stores to triple the cost for those who pay and lower the quality of their products to help make up for the loss,” said CAA Executive Director Brenda Staffan. “Medi-Cal has new policies that will negatively impact every Californian, and their position is that they are not responsible for these negative outcomes as long as all our emergency patients are impacted in the same manner.”

Private ambulance providers do not receive taxpayer subsidies and there is no reimbursement for more than 50 percent of the emergency services they provide.

Ultimately, these cuts will result in a hidden tax on privately insured Californians who already pay higher premiums, deductibles and copays in order to pay for the millions of Californians treated under the Medi-Cal system.

Reduced reimbursements will ultimately impact access to care for all Californians through extended response times to emergencies or delayed implementation of life saving procedures or equipment.

Medi-Cal is implementing a permanent 10-percent reduction in Medi-Cal rates for emergency and interfacility ground ambulance services retroactive to June 1, 2011.

The new permanent lower rate is scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 31, and will only cover about one fifth of the actual cost of emergency service.

Medi-Cal officials rejected the CAA’s request for an exemption from the rate cuts despite numerous independent studies and additional evidence from the state wide 911 EMS system that demonstrates that access to patient care is already being impacted by severely below-cost Medi-Cal rates.