SANTA MONICA AIRPORT — Regional officials are exploring how skyrocketing health care costs might be reduced once area hospitals can assess the tab they pick up for assisting the down-and-out.
Westside government officials at the Aug. 25 homeless subcommittee meeting said they may have discovered a way to divert more funding to social services, by helping hospitals assess how much they absorb annually for un-paid emergency room visits by the region’s homeless population.
A recent survey shows the Los Angeles area’s 90,000 down-and-out are a mixed demographic consisting of families, mentally-ill, substance abusers and more. In excess of 40 percent are considered chronically homeless, meaning they have been on the streets for the last three years or longer.
Government officials believe a significant portion of these people are a drain on local hospitals and might be contributing to rising health care costs. When police and firefighters get calls involving everything from homeless drunken episodes, fights, seizures and other events that might involve injury, emergency personnel often deliver these individuals to the hospitals for treatment.
Depending on their condition, these homeless hospital-goers may stay days at a time, according to officials. Meanwhile, since they’re poor and uninsured, the hospitals are forced to foot the bill.
Ultimately, the costs are passed on to the paying medical customers, who subsidize the homeless and other uninsured groups with increased prices for health care to make up for the loss, according to officials.
However, according to Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver, hospitals may be willing to help support some homeless services, if they can see that doing so would take away from their need to subsidize medical care for the down-and-out.
“Once we know how much that pot is, we’ll be able to have a better idea if hospitals may be able to help with homeless service efforts,” Shriver said. “I suspect the pot will be big enough that they will be more than willing to contribute, once they know it will relieve their emergency rooms and costs.”
The problem, however, is that hospitals in the Los Angeles area are believed to have their own accounting system. Tracking for homeless services may be easier for some than it is for others, Shriver said.
That’s why Westside government officials involved with the homeless’ plight will discuss hiring a consultant at their September meeting, to see if Westside officials can ascertain a firm grasp of how much homeless stays are costing area hospitals.
Once that information is obtained, it might be possible to glean just what kind of “pot” hospitals might be willing to contribute to regional efforts to fight homelessness.
The need to secure homeless funding comes in light of a recent debacle in which the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA), which manages county homeless services, was discovered to be millions in the hole.
As of last month, LAHSA still owed $280,000 to City Hall, plus tens of thousands of dollars more to other groups, including $68,000 to St. Joseph’s Center, according to a recent report.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.