by Mario Velasco, Division Chief
We are proud to announce that we will be offering Medi-Cal outstation/outreach services at the Santa Barbara County Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF, or “Puff”). This will be of great benefit to an especially vulnerable population, enabling them to obtain or reinstate coverage in a more timely manner. Read on to learn what we’re doing and how.
What we're doing
We will be collaborating with the Behavioral Wellness Department (BeWell) to provide prompt, on-request Medi-Cal enrollment and other services for patients at the PHF in Santa Barbara. Most of these patients are at the PHF for only 72 hours. Due to the requirements for Senate Bill 1152 (SB 1152), it is necessary to assist any uninsured homeless patients promptly so that they can get their medication before they are discharged.
Initially, we have agreed to assist in the following areas:
- With Medi-Cal benefits, either new application or reinstatement.
- Assisting these patients with SSI reinstatements.
- Out-of-county placements who have a conservator in our county.
Serving the PHF will be Diana Aguirre, an EW III in the Santa Barbara District Office (SB DO), who already has outreach responsibility for the Jail and Probation. We anticipate that Diana will be familiar with the circumstances of some of these patients, as a number of them have come through Jail or Probation. To make room in her workload for the additional assignment, we will be revising her availability on the Equalizer from 50% to 0% for the time being.
We expect this expanded service will require close collaboration between the SB DO and the Benefit Service Center (BSC), so we have named Cesar Guerrero (EW III) as Diana's primary contact at the BSC, with Lori Newell (EW II) as a backup. We have found that a large percentage of these patients have recently lost their Medi-Cal benefits due to an RRR discontinuance. We also anticipate that a large number of these clients will be homeless, and consequently their case may be at the BSC incorrectly—once this situation is confirmed, their case can be transferred to the SB DO.
As one of the first steps, we are requesting a list of all of current PHF patients to review whether there is current Medi-Cal eligibility.
Further information
For questions about this new outreach/outstation service at the PHF, email me. For more information on SB 1152, see this article or the bill’s text. For more information about the PHF, see this BeWell webpage.