Latino-Rights Group Seeks New Board at CalOptima

A statewide Latino-rights group wants the board that oversees Orange County’s medical program for the poor disbanded in favor of elected leaders, a change it believes would better represent the interests of the largely minority community being served.

In a letter to Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, the League of United Latin American Citizens says that most of those on the board overseeing the county’s CalOptima program are from the corporate sector and have no business overseeing a health care agency funded with public money.

LULAC, the nation’s first Latino civil-rights organization, particularly objects to the lack of Latino or other minority members on the board, although 71% of those served are ethnic minorities, said Zeke Hernandez of Santa Ana, LULAC’s deputy director.

County officials, however, dismiss the criticism. The seven-person board already has members of Latino heritage, they contend, and in any case it would be inappropriate to select trustees based on ethnicity rather than on qualifications.

CalOptima, which oversees medical services to about 200,000 poor and disabled people in Orange County, spends about $500 million annually in federal and state funds to provide health care to the poor, disabled and some elderly. Board members are selected by the Board of Supervisors for four-year terms. The last selections took place in 1996 and 1997.

A resolution advocating the election of CalOptima board members by district was adopted at a LULAC convention in El Segundo this month. The group wants the board disbanded and replaced by a nine-member panel appointed largely by state officials until elections can be held in 2000.

Hernandez wrote to Lockyer calling for consideration of the issue and asserting that county officials cannot be trusted to protect the health care needs of the county’s citizens.

“There are more than enough reasons to believe that such funds will instead be used to offset costs incurred from the county’s recent bankruptcy,” he said. Hernandez cited the supervisors’ interest in spending tobacco-related liability money on non-health care items.

Lockyer’s office said that although Lockyer is concerned that agencies be responsive to Latinos and other minority communities, the CalOptima controversy is not one over which the attorney general has any control.

In making his charges, Hernandez also cited the failure of CalOptima to sign up more people for Healthy Families, a year-old, publicly funded insurance program for the working poor. County officials, though, note that the enrollment gap is a statewide problem.

County officials also dispute that minorities have been excluded from the board, noting that two of its current seven members, Art Birtcher and Joyce Munsell, are of Latino heritage and that former O.C. Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez, a Latino, served on the board in 1994 when CalOptima was being organized.

But Art Montez, a LULAC spokesman, said the county isn’t dealing with the issue. “None of these guys [on the board] is Latino,” he said. “They don’t represent the community.”

Supervisor Cynthia Coad, who has served on the CalOptima board since January, said that although diversity is important, the primary consideration in making appointments should be a candidate’s qualifications to oversee a large and complex agency.

“I am not a proponent of appointing anyone just to appoint someone,” she said. “I want to match the qualifications to the position.”

Don Oxley, director of the county’s Health Care Agency, said that past searches have included extensive outreach to every ethnic community. In the future, “LULAC can help in generating some candidates,” he said.

CalOptima’s current board includes Coad; Birtcher, a real estate developer; and Munsell, a nurse who works as manager of medical resources for manufacturer Parker Hannifin Corp.

Other members are Claire Heaney, a nurse and director of clinical and health education for MedPartners, which until recently managed medical practices; Dr. Peter Anderson, director of emergency services at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital; Dr. Richard Frankenstein, a pulmonary specialist who was chief of staff at Garden Grove Hospital; and Mark Laret, executive director of UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange.

Under its bylaws, three of the board’s members represent health care providers and three represent consumers, beneficiaries, organizations serving beneficiaries, unions, employers and other purchasers of health care for consumers. Board members serve four-year terms.

Birtcher, Munsell and Heaney are CalOptima’s consumer representatives. All three are in their second term on the board; these seats will be up for appointment next spring. The provider terms will be open in 2001.

CalOptima spokeswoman Kathleen Crowley said that each board member “brings unique expertise and experience.” Birtcher is active in community clinics, Heaney has a disabled child and is active in the disabled advocacy community, and Munsell is a health care purchaser for a national company, she said.

Hernandez, however, maintained that the board needs some “everyday people” as balance. About 40% of the CalOptima clientele are Latino, 29% are Asian and Pacific Islander, 3% are black and 29% are Anglo.

“They need to open the door, and that’s why we want an elected process where people submit their names and then it is up to the voters to decide,” Hernandez said.

In addition to its governing board, CalOptima has two advisory boards, representing providers and members. Crowley said that three Latinos serve on the provider board, while one Latino served on the member board until 1997 and another is up for appointment for a term beginning in July. The CalOptima board will fill the vacancy at its meeting next week, she said.

“I am certain everyone would welcome qualified applicants [for all three boards] from all communities in Orange County, including the Latino community,” Crowley said.