Emergency care losses continuing to mount. (Health Care).

EMERGENCY room losses in Los Angeles County and statewide have been trending upward, according to a new report by the California Medical Association.

But the findings, released last week amid debate on how to fund support for emergency services, are drawing questions about their reliability -- and reflect the ongoing challenge of accurately measuring health care data.

The CMA found that L.A. County hospitals suffered $120.1 million in losses for the fiscal year ended June 2001, the most recent annual data available.

That's up 22 percent from the $98.1 million in losses for the prior fiscal year, while statewide emergency room losses rose 24 percent over the same time frame, to $389.6 million.

The report is drawn from figures reported by hospitals to the state Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and an official there says that they may not be entirely reliable -- potentially overstating some losses and understating others.

"It's hard to draw a simple conclusion," said Kenny Kwong, the agency's manager of accounting and reporting. "Health care accounting is complicated."

Kwong said the figures might underreport losses hospital suffer from uninsured emergency room patients incapable of paying their bills, since the figures do not account for medical services rendered outside the emergency room.

The report might also overstate losses by reflecting the higher gross prices hospitals have begun charging for emergency room services, charges that do not necessarily reflect true cost.

Dustin Corcoran, a CMA lobbyist who conducted the study, acknowledged that the figures might have their limitations but he said they were useful in showing a relative trend since 1999 when the first study was conducted.

"This is not 100 percent dead on, but it gives us a flavor of what is happening out there," he said. "We know hospitals are losing a ton of money in the emergency rooms."

The report comes amid debate on a bill that would levy a fee on alcoholic beverages -- the equivalent of 5 cents a drink -- to support emergency services. The bill, authored by Sen. Gloria Romero, DRosemead, would earmark $500 million annually for such services.

Physicians who are represented by the CMA would get a piece of that funding. The CMA estimates that emergency room physicians lost $150 million in the 2000-2001 fiscal year.

Dr. Dan Higgins, director of emergency services at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, which lost $2.4 million in 2001 according to the report, said ER physicians deserve help because more patients who have lost health coverage are using emergency rooms for their primary care. Meanwhile, insurers have made it tougher for hospitals and physicians to get reimbursements for insured patients who are legitimately in need of emergency services.

Staff reporter Laurence Darmiento can be reached at [phone] ext. 237 or at [e-mail]