Health agency for the poor spends $476K on meals, entertainment

Los Angeles County supervisors chided officials with the L.A. Care public health plan after an audit found that the agency spent $476,000 on meals and entertainment between October 2013 and January of this year. The audit released last week found that the health plan -- an independent tax-exempt agency that has a $4.1-billion annual budget and provides managed healthcare services to low-income county residents -- was in good financial shape and that administrative costs were lower than those of other similar plans. But the auditors raised concerns about the meal spending, which included $10,900 spent on a retirement dinner in December for the plan's former chief executive, Howard Kahn, with entertainment and an open bar. Another $12,400 went to eight farewell lunches for Kahn.