Judges block California from cutting Medi-Cal rates

A federal appeals court has halted California's 5% cut in Medi-Cal rates for hospitals. Legislators and state health officials lowered Medi-Cal payments, effective March 1, without examining the effects on quality of care, the economy or poor people's access to health services, as required by federal law, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The appeals court ruling will benefit more than 300 public and private hospitals, said Lloyd Bookman, lawyer for the California Hospital Association.