Over the past several years, the West Side Community Healthcare District has struggled with a massive structural deficit that the Board has been unable to solve. In 2022 and 2024, the Board asked voters to pass a $69 parcel tax. Both measures failed.

Since the beginning of 2026, the Board has attempted to come to an agreement on yet another tax proposal. During May’s Board meeting, the Board finally came to the conclusion that there was no viable way to structure a new tax that would garner the 66% supermajority of votes needed to pass. Ultimately, the Board made a plea for the public to come forward with suggestions on how to tackle this deficit. The solution to the deficit is actually already on the books.

West Side Health Care District (WSHCD) uses a billing company, ‘Quick Med Claims’ (QMC), to collect their payables. According to WSHCD accounting—and some basic math—QMC has a track record of collecting just 58% of the debt. This translates to WSHCD writing off $1,432,585 in bad debt for FY 2024 and $1,189,399 in bad debt for FY 2025.

In March 2025, an ad-hoc subcommittee established under the leadership of President Dave Varnell discovered that in the category of ‘self-pay’ alone, WSHCD sported a 24% bad debt ratio, while our neighboring Del Puerto Health Care District and Merced County were 7% and 3% respectively.

How do they do it? These districts invest in automated payer discovery software and hold their billing companies responsible. This software matches patients with existing insurance companies, meaning that residents are not left holding the bag; instead, their insurance companies are properly billed. WSHCD needs to do the same.

Why does this matter? If the Board held QMC to the same standard that DPHCD performs to for self-pay (7%), WSHCD would immediately see an increase of $43,000 per month and $520,000 per year. Not to mention, they could collect 6 months of existing outstanding debt in the amount of $352,000—creating a 1-year total revenue swing of $870,000.

Ed Brooks

Newman, CA