What we’ve done is build a treatment in-
dustrial complex around service delivery
for low-income people. … The incredi-
ble industrial and business strength of
Sacramento is complemented by this and
can be brought to bear on it, and that’s
what the treatment industrial complex
is — we use a lot of those services. We
built to scale. It may be that a specialist
previously didn’t want to see people who
had Medi-Cal, but it was because they
came in dribs and drabs. We request
over 6,000 referrals a month from our
health centers, so we’re able to deliver
a predictable scale to (specialists) who
will say, “I’m going to devote two of my
days a week to the Medicaid popula-
tion because I know there’s a f low of
patients at scale.” You will see that our
specialty network — stuff we don’t do
in primary care — has come closer. …
Our dental practice used to send kids to
Stockton for specialty services. Every-
thing is here now.
We have record low unemployment.
People think of Medicaid beneficiaries
as poor, unemployed people. One in
t hree Ca lifornia ns has Medi-Ca l, so
with less than 5 percent of Californians
unemployed, that means the vast major-
ity of people on Medi-Cal are actually
working. There is a misunderstanding
about that. (WellSpace) supports the
workforce — we keep people at work,
we keep their kids at school, and they
contribute to the economy. … I still go
to meetings where people say derogatory
things about people on Medi-Cal, and
the reality is next time they sit down at
a restaurant, the person handing them
their food is on Medi-Cal.
W hen you come i nto one of ou r
health centers, it looks just like the com-
mercial one I go to. That’s the goal: We
neutralize the difference, we focus on
health, and we build a workforce and
a healthier population. Back to (our)
mission, achieving regional health — we
bring up the well-being of the least well-
off, we change total health for a commu-
nity, we change total health care costs
for a communit y. If we ma ke people
healthier, you’ll see dramatic decreas-
es in emergency room utilization, and
so there’s this bending of the cost curve
away from acute care toward preventive
and primary care. That could do nothing
but good. We rent a lot of facilities, we
built a lot of things, we contribute to the
economy in a very large way with payroll
for almost 900 employees. n
Sena Christian is managing editor of
Comstock’s. On Twitter @SenaCChristian
or senachristian.com.
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October 2019 | comstocksmag.com
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