One of California's major MediCal providers has gone dark over the last week, operating without any working phones or web services, leaving thousands of residents without access.
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Partnership HealthPlan serves over six hundred thousand people Northern California, mostly low-income families.
"To have an outage like this is certainly not uncommon but it happens," said Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access California. This kind of thing does exist in care reliant on a digital presence.
The people affected by the blackout, who may already be struggling with medical care costs, should still be able to get their coverage.
"The fact that they are down shouldn’t stop people from getting the care that they need," said Wright.
But this is a major leap of faith for enrollees who have been left in the lurch while their provider is currently unable to process medical requests.
"You want to make sure the treatment is covered, because if you're low-income, you’re not able to deal with a bill," said Wright.
There is an option for people when treatment can't be covered by insurance. If a plan denies a request, or in this case is just unresponsive, people can go to the state regulator, the Department of Managed Healthcare.
In the meantime, Partnership Health has said that they are working diligently to restore their systems as soon as possible.
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