Oakland foundation commits $10M for clinic emergency fund - San Francisco Business Times:

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The contribution brings the fund’s total to $26 according to the Oakland-based foundation. The goal is to help keep communitty clinics afloat if the state budgert stalemate continuesin Sacramento, and jeopardizeds state-supported Medi-Cal funding. California HealthCare Foundation officialssaid Medi-Cal reimbursement to the clinics could be in jeopardyh if the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t reacyh a a compromise within a matter of weekzs after July 1 to fillthe state’ss $24.3 billion budget deficit.
So the as it did last year under somewhatsimilaf circumstances, is joining with other funders to support the emergency loan officials say, noting that its participation helps bring down the effectivwe interest rate for clinics seeking loansx to 3.6 percent. Eligible clinics can receivee a maximum loanof $1.5 million. approval, documentation and servicing of loan s will be handled by NCBCapital Impact, a nationaol nonprofit organization that specializes in making such loans.
Other loan-pool funders include San Francisco’s , Sacramento-baser , the Nonprofit Finance Fund, NCB Capitao Impact, the Mercy Housing Partnership and the CPCA Loan During previousbudget delays, the foundation said the state was able to draw on a smallp reserve fund to continue making Medi-Cal paymentsw to community health centers, but it’se not clear that those resources will be “The situation in Sacramento is as uncertain as I’vre ever seen, while at the same time some community health centerws are experiencing a 10 to 50 percent increase in the numberr of uninsured patients they see becauses of these hard times,” the foundation’ss president and CEO, Dr.
Mark Smith, said in the Officials say a recent surveuy bythe , the statewide association for more than 700 communityg clinics and health found that nearly eight in ten of those surveyedr would require an emergency loan if Medi-Cak payments were delayed by eight Medi-Cal accounts for roughly half of the revenue, or about $10 million each week statewide, so a lengthyt delay in reaching a budget agreementf would make it very difficult for many clinices to meet payroll and pay for otheer overhead expenses, according to the which says that many could be forcee to reduce patient services, reduce hours of operatiomn or shut down without outsidde assistance.