This investigative story reported that the directories of doctors given to low-income patients across California are highly inaccurate, making it difficult for them to get the health care they’re entitled to under state law. More than half of the primary-care doctors in provider directories given to low-income patients in three counties in Northern, Central and Southern California were not accepting new patients with Medi-Cal, the state’s low-income health plan, or could not be reached by telephone. The accuracy of the physician directories is important because consumers searching for a doctor need to be able to find one, a task already difficult because so few doctors accept Medi-Cal patients. Also, insurers are required under state law to provide accurate reports of the doctors in their networks, to ensure that there are physicians to meet the demand. This story was particularly important this year, as California expanded Medicaid and the number of people enrolled in that program swelled. At the time we published this story, about 10.6 million people — more than a quarter of the state’s population — were enrolled in Medi-Cal.
