Article Santa Barbara IndependentNick Welsh

CenCal Health Ranks Fourth Statewide
Health Plan Covers 20 Percent of S.B., S.L.O. Counties

Sixty-six percent of all Medi-Cal patients in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties get appointments for urgent calls within 48 hours, according to the California Department of Managed Health Care, and 83 percent of Medi-Cal patients seeking non-urgent treatment get seen within two weeks.

These patients — totaling about 180,000 — are part of a managed care system known as CenCal Health. These response times earned CenCal a fourth-place ranking of 36 full-service health plans. CenCal provides coverage to 20 percent of the two counties’ population.