Countywide : County OKs Loan for Public HMO

The Board of Supervisors approved a $3-million loan Tuesday that provides start-up funding for the organization known as OPTIMA, recently created to improve health care for the county’s Medi-Cal recipients.

OPTIMA, expected to become the state’s largest public health maintenance organization, hopes to begin serving Orange County’s 225,000 Medi-Cal recipients in mid-1995.

OPTIMA Chief Executive Officer Mary Dewane called the loan a “very substantial” step toward getting started.

“It’s another commitment the county and the stake holders in the community have made in their continued support of this really great effort,” she said.

Under terms of the loan agreement, OPTIMA will pay off the amount within a year after it gets started. The organization has received about $3.7 million in start-up funds, including the loan, from county, state and other sources.

Last summer, the Board of Supervisors formally set in motion the Orange Prevention Treatment Integrated Medical Assistance program. The $450-million program will contract with doctors, hospitals and clinics to serve Medi-Cal recipients.

The system depends largely on attracting physicians by offering a more efficient means of reimbursement than Medi-Cal.