Negotiations with HCA over breast health program fall through
After months of good faith negotiations, the Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA) has arbitrarily refused to provide the full amount allocated to Planned Parenthood for our much-needed
breast health program.
We have done everything in our power to meet all of the guidelines and restrictions imposed by the HCA. There are adequate funds to run the program but they are refusing to release them. HCA has not stated their intentions for the money that had been originally set aside for our vital health education and services. Acting under the direction of the Board of Supervisors, the HCA has created a series of programmatic and fiscal barriers that have made it impossible for us to offer the services outline in our proposal.
The suggested program would have provided increased access to diagnostic testing and follow-up care for women with a detected breast abnormality who are at high-risk for breast cancer. Regardless of county funding, Planned Parenthood is still committed to providing uninsured women in Orange County with quality health care. We will continue to operate our current Beast Health Program that provides clinical breast exams, breast health and cancer prevention education and outreach, and treatment referrals to women under 40 in Orange County.
To see where we stand, take a look at our final correspondence with HCA regarding this year’s TSR funding.
Our Breast Health Care Program
Our nurses at Planned Parenthood annually provide more than 15,000 women with breast exams. We understand the critical need for this service.
Our proposal sought funds to establish a second-level breast health care program for young women. This program would provide testing and treatment, including diagnostic procedures and follow-up care, to women who are high-risk or who have a detected breast abnormality.
The proposed program met all of the technical specification of the recent policy issued by the board of supervisors, including being in a separate facility. The Breast Health Program was targeted to reach uninsured women under age 40 who have an abnormal clinical breast exam or detect a breast lump.
By refusing to fund Planned Parenthood’s Breast Health Program, the county is telling the 400 women we’d serve in our first year — women who have nowhere else to go for treatment in Orange County — that they don’t care whether or not these women have cancer; they don’t care whether they live or die.
The technical refusal
Integral to our proposal was a Nurse Case Manager, whose role is to help our breast cancer patients negotiate the very complex and daunting system of care. The Nurse Case Manager is a licensed clinician providing direct patient care.
Health Care Agency staff, using a contrived new TSR regulation, claim that our proposal for a Nurse Case Manager is outside their guidelines and refused to fund the program.
Click here for a summary of our Breast Health Care Program proposal
Breast cancer and women under 40
Breast cancer in younger women is particularly deadly.
Uninsured women under age 40 have no place to go for care in Orange County if they are diagnosed with a breast lump.
Komen Report
From the Community Profile Report by Susan G. Komen for the Cure Orange County:
The key challenge that remains in Orange County is breast health services and support for women with low-income and those without health insurance (a theme that persisted throughout the Provider Survey and Key Informant Interviews, and is supported by the demographics of the areas at high risk of late-stage diagnosis). Financial support for those going through breast cancer may also become more important in this economic climate.
A huge unmet need for California, and specifically for Orange County, is that breast cancer screening for high-risk or diagnostic procedures for women younger than age 40 are not covered by anyone.
Click here for the full report
