8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY august 22-28, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com news As Seaside development expands further north with the nascent Campus Town project, which seeks to build up to nearly 1,500 residential units on dilapidated property between Gigling Road and Lightfighter Drive, a second fire station for Seaside has long been contemplated. In 2021, Seaside Fire Chief Mary Gutierrez was tasked with finding the ideal location for the station, which she decided was at the corner of Gigling Road and First Avenue. The City Council agreed, and in 2022 hired a firm to design it, and 2023, another consultant to do the environmental work. On Aug. 15, the City Council unanimously approved the project, but with a wrinkle: It’s somewhat smaller in scale than the first design iteration, as the city “value-engineered” the project through its design phase. In other words, the idea is to build a smaller version of the station first with the ability to make additions in phases going forward so that current taxpayers aren’t saddled with costs that should arguably be borne by future taxpayers. Notably, that includes delaying a municipally owned training area. Currently, Seaside Fire uses an Army-owned training area, but can only use it when the Army is not, and when those training don’t have to worry about response times. The current estimated cost of construction is $25.5 million, a number that can quickly change based on market forces, and that will rise if and when future phases are built, which include more dorm rooms, office space, a community room and the training area. Permitting for the project is expected to wrap up in the fall of 2025, followed by construction. Firing Up The groundwork is being laid for a northern expansion in Seaside. By David Schmalz For over a year at monthly meetings in Sacramento, members of the state’s Office of Health Care Affordability Board have been hearing stories from Monterey County residents about the high cost of hospitals. So many stories came pouring out, combined with research data placing the hospitals in the top 10 and 15 percent of highest-priced in the state, that the board agreed it was time for a road trip. On Wednesday, Aug. 28, the OHCA board will meet in Seaside and most of the day-long meeting is reserved for public comment. It will be a chance for local consumers, workers, providers and hospital executives to voice their concerns faceto-face with the eight-member board appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, after the board was created in 2022. Its chairperson is Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. Hospital executives are likely to reiterate a message they’ve already shared with OHCA about the pressure on them to overcharge private payers in order to subsidize government payers—that means charging more to insurers like Anthem and United Healthcare. Government payers (primarily Medi-Cal and Medicare) are unmoving, and they notoriously underpay for the actual cost of care. A host of other interest groups, including labor unions and academics, are likely to speak up as well, raising questions about the story hospital leaders are telling. Some researchers, like Laurel Lucia, the Health Care Program Director at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, are skeptical of the hospitals’ claim. “There has been a lot of economic research [about whether] hospitals try to set their commercial prices based on shortfalls from public payers. That research has failed to find evidence of that,” Lucia says. “Second, if this type of cost-shifting was occurring, you would expect those that serve the highest number of Medi-Cal patients to charge higher prices, but it just doesn’t bear out in the data.” Lucia and her team are mining a wealth of data that is now available to the public, thanks to OHCA. Some of that data reveals that local hospitals are in line with the state average when it comes to their patient payer mix. For example, in 2022, 71 percent of CHOMP’s patients were insured by Medicare or Medi-Cal, slightly lower than 72 percent statewide; 76 percent at Salinas Valley Health were publicly insured; and 82 percent at Natividad. There’s still Lucia’s unanswered question about pricing, which is not reflected in the OHCA data—hospital pricing is still treated as proprietary. But the RAND research group, relying on data voluntarily provided by self-insured employers, reveals that in 2020-22, local hospitals charged relatively high prices. Prices (both inpatient and outpatient services) at CHOMP were 4.7 times what Medicare pays; 4.2 times higher than Medicare at Natividad; and 3.4 times higher at SVH. The median California hospital charged 2.7 times higher. Ahead of the public comment period, the board will hear reports about variation in health care prices across the state, along with a case study of Monterey County hospital prices and an explanation of OHCA’s statutory authority to address high costs. The meeting starts at 9am at Embassy Suites, 1441 Canyon Del Rey Blvd., Seaside. It’s also available online at hcai.ca.gov/public-meetings. Salinas teachers union presidents Steve McDougall and Kati Bassler have been speaking regularly about health care costs, and will speak at the Aug. 28 meeting. Home Turf Monterey County’s high hospital costs spurs state officials to come visit and learn more. By Pam Marino and Sara Rubin A rendering of Seaside’s Fire Station No. 2, slated to be built at the corner of Gigling Road and First Avenue. Construction is expected to last 14 months and begin at the end of 2025. “It just doesn’t bear out in the data.” Daniel Dreifuss courtesy of city of seaside
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