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California Officials Pledge To Reduce Medi-Cal Backlog To 350,000

California officials have laid out their plans to cut a backlog of Medi-Cal applications in a letter to the federal government.

Officials say they're concentrating on fixing computer problems that have hindered the efforts of county eligibility workers to communicate with the state's new healthcare enrollment system.

Medi-Cal applications are supposed to be processed within 45 days. But the Medi-Cal system has been overwhelmed by applicants since the state lowered eligibility requirements last October.

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As a result, the number of people with pending Medi-Cal applications had grown to 900,000 in March. The state reduced that number to 600,000 by the end of June.

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