San Bernardino, CA, March 25, 1999 - - Nearly three years beyond initial projections, California’s Department of Health Services will begin implementing the Medi-Cal Two-Plan Model managed care program in Riverside and San Bernardino counties on April 1.

It is part of a statewide effort in nine counties to shift Medi-Cal beneficiaries out of fee-for-service health care into managed care HMOs to provide greater access to higher quality health care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries at reduced costs to taxpayers.

Approximately 100,000 Medi-Cal "fee-for-service" beneficiaries in the two counties will be notified and receive the opportunity to enroll in one of two managed care health plans by July 1. Those who do not select a plan for themselves will be assigned to one of the plans by the state.

In the Two-Plan Model managed care program, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is the publicly sponsored, not-for-profit, local initiative health plan. Molina Medical Centers is the privately owned, commercial, for-profit health plan.

DHS will contract with both health plans to provide medical services to mandatory aid code Medi-Cal beneficiaries in both Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Mandatory aid codes include most recipients in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).

"IEHP has been certified, staffed, and eager to welcome additional Inland Empire Medi-Cal beneficiaries into our health plan for years," said Richard Bruno, IEHP’s CEO. "Everyone at IEHP has waited a long time for this day. We are extremely happy the state has given us the ‘green light’ to proceed."

IEHP contracts with over 2,000 physicians, 23 hospitals, 450 pharmacies, and 150 vision providers in the Inland Empire.

As of March, IEHP had 132,124 Medi-Cal members plus 1,603 Healthy Families members in the Inland Empire.

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