San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said that an impending 10% reduction in Medi-Cal reimbursements to physicians is "unconscionable" and discussed details of a potential lawsuit to block the cut, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. The state Legislature approved the $567 million reduction in February, and it is slated to take effect on July 1 (Vega/Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/26).

Newsom and others predict that if reimbursement rates are lowered, physicians will stop treating Medi-Cal beneficiaries and people will be forced to seek care in hospital emergency departments where care is more costly. Newsom said, "I hate the idea of suing anybody. ... We have no choice." According to the California Medical Association, California's Medicaid reimbursement rates are already among the lowest in the nation.

Newsom said the lawsuit would argue that the cuts would impose an unfair burden on taxpayers by transferring the cost of treating Medi-Cal beneficiaries from the state- and federally funded program to local governments that fund public hospitals, which are expected to treat a large share of Medi-Cal beneficiaries who cannot find a physician.

According to the Chronicle, it remains unclear whether San Francisco would file the suit or whether the suit would be filed by Newsom and a coalition of supporters. Newsom said that health care providers statewide support the proposed lawsuit and that he is trying to recruit additional municipalities to join. He declined to specify when the suit would be filed (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/26).