Three local hospitals called out for overspending; OHCA Board

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Three Monterey County hospitals are facing potential spending limits after a report by the Office of Affordable Health Care.

The report says CHOMP, Salinas Valley Health and Natividad Medical Center are all charging patients two to three times more than the average state hospital for care.These costs are causing concern among people in the community and some local organizations.

Francisco Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Labor Council states, “things like high rent cost, high hospital costs. Those all directly impacting our members who are part of the community.” 

Luz Maria Cardozo explains that their health care coverage is not enough to cover their needs through these elevated costs of living. 

Rodrguez adds, “What we want is for the hospitals to limit, basically lower the cost for our members and by extension to the community as a whole.” 

He says that their efforts called for a point-one percent cap, but the affordable health care committee agreed with the state, placing a three percent budget cap.

Still, Rodriguez mentions this small percentage is too much spending for our local hospitals, resulting in higher costs for patients.

We contacted Salinas Valley Health for their position on the issue. In a written statement, they said the following: 

OHCA’s methodology is flawed and does not acknowledge the inherent financial complexities involved. OHCA’s board still has time to correct its evaluation process and to incorporate Salinas Valley Health’s consolidated audited financial data.” 

The OHCA committee will be receiving public comments until April 11th before taking action on this plan in early June. The goal is to reduce hospital spending to three percent by 2029.