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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: November 16, 2010 <br />Action Agenda I <br />Item No. ~-- ' Q <br />SUBJECT• Adjustment of Minimum Charge for Health Department Dental Services to $30 <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (YIN) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Rosemary Summers, 245-2411 <br />PURPOSE: To approve an adjustment to the minimum charge for Health Department dental <br />services from $25 to 30 to minimize the revenue impact from adjusting the sliding fee scale <br />downward. <br />BACKGROUND: All Health Department clinical services have relied on software that was <br />custom developed by Anne Presnell, an Orange County programmer using mainframe <br />technology that allowed data collection and batch transfer to the state data system -Health <br />Statistics Information System (RBIs). That program has served the Health Department well for <br />over 20 years. The Information Technologies Department informed Health Department staff <br />last fiscal year that the mainframe was to be decommissioned in 2010-2011. With the <br />anticipated State transition last year from HSIS to a new software program -Health Information <br />System (HIS), the Health Department had been able to project compliance with the mainframe <br />decommissioning. The promise of the new HIS program has not been fulfilled. <br />Orange County first started using the system in mid-June and has identified multiple serious <br />problems that are affecting both service delivery as well as the billing and collections functions. <br />One of the problems identified that does not have a technological solution at this time is that the <br />Health Department can only have one sliding scale identified for the entire department. <br />Currently, Orange County medical services slide services to 0% pay in accordance with Title X <br />requirements for family planning services. The dental clinics have used a sliding fee scale that <br />slides to 20% pay rather than 0% pay. Dental services currently require a $25 minimum fee. <br />The new software will not allow two sliding fee scales. <br />Staff has continued to use the mainframe for self-pay clients until the issue could be resolved <br />by HIS programmers. County staff has been notified that this is a very low priority and will not <br />be addressed this year. <br />