Medi-Cal - change Alameda Alliance to straight Medi-Cal?
Hello. My young adult daughter with specialized medical needs and Medi-cal administered by The Alameda Alliance for Health is being treated at a specialized clinic at UCSF Mission Bay. Until recently her primary care physician was with the UCSF Teen Clinic, but she's aged out. She's been assigned to Community Health Center Network at La Clinica De La Raza-Transit Village. Apparently she cannot continue at the UCSF specialty clinic without another referral, which I hope La Clinica will do.
However I have really liked being part of the UCSF system so because her records and care have been coordinated. I just spoke with the UCSF John Muir Berkeley Clinic. They say that they only take straight Medi-Cal - not Alameda Alliance for Health or any other administrators.
My questions -
- Does anyone have advice on getting Medi-Cal transferred from an administrator to straight Medi-Cal? Or any other thoughts on this situation?
- Does anyone have experience with La Clinica-Transit Village - positive or negative?
Thanks in advance. This is challenging - lots of hold time every which way.
Parent Replies
I work at La Clinica (in pediatrics at a different site) and straight MediCal is pretty rare these days. So I can't comment much on that.
I can say that La Clinica provides excellent quality care. I say this based on what nurses in the hospitals have said when they're discharging complicated patients to us. They've told me they always breathe a sigh of relief when they find out the kid is going to La Clinica, because they know we'll stay on top of their needs (more than an average private practice). I doubt anyone would hesitate to refer your daughter to a specialty clinic she needs and has been going to. The downside is that customer service is not necessarily our strong suit. There's frequently issues with getting through on the phones (MyChart through the health record can provide a partial solution to that) and many of us docs there don't do a great job of running on time. But you will get excellent quality medical care.
There's a lot to be said for staying in an integrated system. The fragmentation between primary care and specialists is less of an issue than it used to be because for the most part we can read each other's notes. But still, at La Clinica I can't talk to the specialist down the hall about a shared patient the way another UCSF doc can.
Good luck figuring it out.