The Riverside County Medical Association is pleased to inform you that the EMSA (Emergency Medical Services Allocation) funds that were being held by the state for the fiscal years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 have now been successfully recovered. The allocation for this three-year time period is approximately $1.9 million, or about $650,000 a year.

The RCMA, the Riverside County Foundation for Medical Care and the Riverside County Emergency Medical Services Department worked aggressively on your behalf to recover this money. To ensure fairness, the money was distributed based on the total percentage of payments made to each physician under the Maddy program during these same time periods. For example, if your practice received 5 percent of the Maddy funds paid during 2003-04, you received 5 percent of the EMSA funds for that same time period. Checks for all three fiscal-year periods were mailed in October.

As long as the Legislature continues to approve the distribution of EMSA funds in the future, Riverside County physicians will receive approximately $650,000 annually, in addition to the $1.4 million currently paid under the Maddy program for emergency medical care provided to the indigent population.

Although we recognize that the cost of unfunded emergency medical care is overwhelming and the money paid under the Maddy/EMSA program is miniscule by comparison, the RCMA continues to pursue increased funding for uncompensated care, while the Riverside County Foundation for Medical Care is diligent in ensuring physicians are paid in a timely manner from these programs.

As a reminder, physicians must register to participate. To download the forms, go to the RCMA's Web site at www.rcmanet.org. Click on the "EMSF (Maddy) Enrollment Forms" link in the right column.

If you have questions concerning this issue, contact Dolores Green, executive director, at 951/686-3342.