Ethermac Exchange-Health insurance providers to fund street doctors and clinics to serve LA’s homeless population

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A public agency and Ethermac Exchangeprivate health insurance provider are teaming up to build a system of street doctors and clinics that will provide medical care to Los Angeles’ homeless population, including routine preventive medicine, officials announced Wednesday.

The goal is for homeless residents to see primary care physicians long term, rather than sporadically through visits from resource-strapped street medicine teams that struggle to make follow-up appointments or ensure patients receive their prescriptions, said Dr. Sameer Amin, chief medical officer of L.A. Care Health Plan, a Los Angeles County agency that provides health insurance for low-income individuals.

Officials with L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net, a U.S. health care insurance provider, said they will commit $90 million from the state over five years to the effort.

LA County is the nation’s most populous, with about 10 million people. More than 10% of all homeless people in the U.S. live in the county, according to a 2023 federal count.

In the city of Los Angeles, more than 45,000 people — many suffering from serious mental illness, substance addictions or both — live in litter-strewn encampments and where rows of rusting RVs line entire blocks. The spread of homelessness has had cascading effects on drug overdose deaths, especially from the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

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The tally of unhoused people in the city of about 4 million, one of the nation’s largest, is about equal to the population of Palm Springs. The providers say they hope to serve as many as 85,000 homeless people.

Of the money, $60 million will go toward beefing up the field medicine program throughout the county, bringing services to residents who live in encampments, shelters or in temporary housing. The rest of the money will bolster services on Skid Row, a notorious section of downtown Los Angeles with sprawling homeless encampments. It includes a new health campus expected to open in 2025.

“We’re putting up extended hours for specialty care, extended hours for more urgent services,” Amin said.

On Tuesday, a mobile health care team from Wesley Health Centers rolled through Skid Row, passing tents, tarps and people stretched out on blankets. The team offered HIV and STD testing, psychiatric services, and referrals for other care, such as dental and vision, said Marie McAfee, director of operations for Wesley health. She said they can see between 50 to 100 patients in a day.

Norma Terrazas, 46, appreciates that the clinic comes to her. She had her blood pressure checked.

“This is Skid Row and we need help. We need all the help we can get,” she said. “They make sure that our health is OK, our bodies are strong and that we can withstand anything right now.”

Martha Santana-Chin of Health Net said she’s excited about the possibility of more cardiology, orthopedic and other specialty care for people in Skid Row. Plans are in the works for free shuttles that would transport patients to facilities, as transportation is a key barrier to care.

The money comes from California’s Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program, $1 billion of which Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to withhold in 2022 from cities and counties, saying he was underwhelmed by proposed plans to reduce homelessness. L.A. Care is putting up 70% of the funding.

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Har reported from San Francisco.