Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics continue to expand across the region. They are also working with hospitals to improve care integration and access to specialty services for Medi-Cal patients.

Following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, this region, comprising Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, has seen a decrease in people who are uninsured and an increase in people with Medi-Cal coverage. In turn, the number of Federally Qualified Health Centers has grown, and patient visits more than doubled in just a few years.

The rural North Coast California counties of Humboldt and Del Norte face multiple health and health care challenges, including high death rates from preventable causes and shortages of health care providers. The region is addressing these challenges through different collaborative efforts.

As COVID-19 containment efforts took hold, patient volume at California hospitals fell precipitously as hospitals discontinued elective and nonurgent care while drastically increasing inpatient bed supply to treat a predicted surge of COVID-19 patients. This issue brief provides initial estimates of some of the immediate financial and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on California’s hospitals and health care system.