County Upset by Reports That UCI May Share Grant : Health care: Chancellor Peltason, however, denied that part of the $3 million would be given to other hospitals in the country that treat indigents.

SANTA ANA —  County officials lashed out Friday at reports that UC Irvine might not spend all of a $3-million grant for its near-bankrupt medical center, but might instead share the money with other hospitals in the county.

On Friday evening, however, Chancellor Jack W. Peltason sought to downplay the idea. “We’re not about to give away money given to us,” Peltason said.

At issue is the $3-million grant allocated March 5 by county supervisors after some UC regents threatened to close the hospital in Orange if the county didn’t pay more for indigent health care.

On Thursday and Friday, health care advocates and even a top UCI Medical Center official said that UCI was considering sharing the money with other hospitals in the same way that it shares other county funds earmarked for medical care for the poor.

But that would be unacceptable, County Health Care Agency director Tom Uram warned. “The board’s direction is to give it to UCI,” he said. “I didn’t sell it to the board that way (to be split among other county hospitals for indigent care). If it’s going to be different, I’ll have to re-sell the board.”

Uram also suggested that if UCI wished to split the funds between its hospital and other county hospitals, then emergency aid for the medical center might be significantly reduced.

“One scenario, if they come back and the university only wants $1 million” for itself, with the remainder for other county hospitals, “that’s all they (supervisors) will give,” Uram said.

Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Gaddi H. Vasquez expressed concern as well. “I’m aghast if it’s so,” Wieder said. Vasquez said he wants all $3 million to go to UCI and said he plans to discuss the issue with Peltason.

County officials made their comments Friday afternoon after a top UCI official and others said that such a plan to share the $3 million was under discussion. On Friday morning, for instance, Herb Spiwak, the medical center’s deputy director, told The Times that the hospital would probably keep only $1.5 million of the $3 million.

“We obviously can use all the money,” Spiwak said. (The hospital ran a $10.9-million deficit last year, largely because so many of its patients lacked private health insurance.)

“Our philosophy is the dollars should be shared among all hospitals” in Orange County that care for indigent patients, he said.

But on Friday evening, Peltason--who had been out of town--said there must have been a misunderstanding and insisted that UCI wanted all of the $3 million.

He added, however, that under the local contract system for indigent care, the money must be funneled through the Hospital Council of Southern California. As part of that procedure, he noted, 29 other member hospitals still must sign the contract approving the $3-million allocation to UCI.

County supervisors on March 5 had made a special--and urgent--allocation to UCI Medical Center after learning that the UC Board of Regents was considering closing the hospital if local officials did not pay more for indigent care. In addition to caring for 40% of Orange County’s indigent patients, the 473-bed hospital operates the county’s only burn center, a regional poison center, and the county’s busiest emergency room and trauma center.

The hospital last year handled about 10,000 of the county’s indigent patients. Some 29 other local hospitals handle the rest and traditionally, under hospital council contracts with Orange County, reimbursements for indigent care are split according to a hospital’s indigent load.

In addition to UCI officials’ comments, the Hospital Council’s Orange County vice president, Russell Inglish, said that the issue of where the $3 million would go--to UCI Medical Center only or to be shared with other local hospitals--was “undecided.”

Inglish said the council’s executive committee will meet next week to discuss what to do. He also emphasized, as had Peltason, that under council rules, each of the other 29 hospitals must sign the county contract if UCI is to get its $3 million. Inglish noted that Peltason’s initial request to supervisors was for $8.1 million for Orange County’s indigent care system--mainly to replace funds cut last year. Inglish claimed the board’s cover letter on the $3-million allocation request was “vague” and he was not clear of the board’s intent in its allocation.

However, that letter by Uram and County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider notes on its third page: “The $3 million will respond to the immediate crisis facing UCIMC.”

Adding to the differing perceptions of UCI’s intent, some leaders of the United Way Health Care Task Force said they met with Peltason on Thursday and came away with the distinct--and some said, disturbing--impression that UCI was planning to split the $3 million with other hospitals.

Said Ellen Severoni, executive director of California Health Decisions in Orange: “He very much said his stance from the beginning was that he was asking for money for indigent care in Orange County, not necessarily for UCI Medical Center.”

Severoni said it was her understanding that UCI officials were considering sharing the $3 million with other members of the Hospital Council.

Calling this a poor idea, Severoni said: “It’s very difficult for the public to understand how money could be given to one institution and then given to another.”

Task force chairman Chauncey Alexander called any plan to split the $3 million unfortunate. “It sends a mixed message to the public. Here UCI says (to county supervisors) it has all these problems, and here it is splitting the money,” he said.

On Friday evening, Peltason stressed that he had always sought two things when he had made his initial, urgent request to supervisors for $8.1 million in indigent-care funds--$3 million of that for UCI. Part of that was to be for “better reimbursement for patients we took care of” plus “a system in place” to share indigent patients, Peltason said. “I’ll take the $3 million,” he added. “But I also want money to come” to the system.

Also late Friday, Alexander said he believed that UCI should simply accept its money for its troubled hospital.