CalOptima board approves $1.6 million to start mobile medical team to treat homeless people

Responding to a surge in homeless deaths, the governing board of Orange County’s health care plan for its poor allocated $1.6 million on Friday, Feb. 22, to start a mobile medical team to treat homeless people at shelters and other places they congregate.

The action came at a special meeting three days after U.S. District Judge David O. Carter described the number of homeless deaths in Orange County in 2018 as a “public health crisis.” Carter, who is overseeing a civil rights lawsuit over the treatment of homeless people here, is seeking more information into the causes of the deaths.

Facing pressure from the judge, the board of CalOptima, the agency that administers the county’s Medi-Cal funds, met to wrestle with how it could provide better health care services to homeless people.

The board voted to establish a one-year pilot program for a clinical field team that would include a doctor, a medical assistant and a social worker to go to the places where homeless people stay – shelters, parks and encampments – rather than expect them to seek out treatment.

Michael Schrader, CalOptima CEO, said a system that depends on people traveling to clinics “doesn’t work so well for the homeless population.”

Records from the Orange County coroner show 209 homeless people died in Orange County in 2018, nearly four times as many as in 2005.

The CalOptima board also directed staff to explore a number of options for expanding services to homeless people. Options include how Medi-Cal dollars can be spent on housing and how to improve coordination with other groups that provide health-related services to homeless people.

CalOptima serves more than 800,000 people, nearly one-quarter of the county’s population.