Health Consumer Center of Los Angeles
Neighborhood Legal Services - 020085
Abstract Number: 020085
October 2002
Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS) of Los Angeles County established the Health Consumer Center of Los Angeles (HCC) to improve access to quality health care for low-income individuals in Los Angeles. HCC is part of a collaborative called the "Health Consumer Alliance" which supports similar health consumer centers located in legal services programs in seven counties in California. HCC's mission is to eliminate and address barriers that prevent low-income people from receiving quality health care. HCC accomplishes this in a number of ways ranging from assisting individuals overcome language barriers and transportation problems to resolving problems with Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and HMOs. HCC's hotline receives over 25,000 calls a year, which are handled by nine intake counselors who are supervised by attorneys. Over 90 percent of the problems are handled without direct attorney involvement and HCC closes roughly 5,000 cases a year. The hotline enables customers to receive culturally sensitive advice and services in English, Spanish, Armenian, Khmer, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.
HCC also conducts outreach and education to ensure the center is serving diverse communities. Trainings are available for consumers to educate them about the availability of low and no-cost health care services and how to enforce health care rights. HCC also offers workshops and technical support for social service agencies and community-based organizations. Recently, HCC received a contract to train hospital financial screeners thereby helping to ensure that hospital screeners do not mistakenly or wrongfully prevent an eligible individual from receiving coverage for their medical treatment.
HCC and its partner organizations engage in policy advocacy work at the local, state and federal levels to solve critical health care problems facing Los Angeles low-income communities. While HCC is committed to resolving health care access issues at all levels, HCC also realizes that impact policy work can make fundamental improvements in the health care delivery system. Consequently, all five HCC attorneys are involved to some degree in policy work and one attorney works full-time on policy issues. Consumer data is stored in a database which HCC attorneys reference to enhance their advocacy work.
To learn more about this project, visit the Health Consumer Alliance Website at: http://www.healthconsumer.org/.
Contact Information:
Barbara Frankel
Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
13327 Van Nuys Boulevard
Pacoima, CA 91331-3099
Phone: (818) 834-7572
Fax: (818) 896-6647
Email
Additional Information:
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