Catalina Island Health provided an update to Avalon City Council during its Tuesday, July 28, meeting. Scheduled bi-monthly, CEO Tim Kielpinski shared an update about CIH’s current operations and plans for the new replacement hospital.
Following are the key topics Kielpinski covered.
Reminder of various measures and government funding sources
Kielpinski shared a screen that included Measures: C, H, B, ER and IGT. He told the council that although he covers these measures nearly every time he is in front of them, he is primarily doing it for the community as a reminder or for someone who hasn’t seen it before. He said the hospital still gets questions from the public and he feels this is a great opportunity to share it. He encouraged council members or community members to reach out to the hospital with any questions or to get a copy of the full document that explains each of the funding sources.
He went on to share an overview of the recent passage of Measure ER. “The fact that measure ER just passed in L.A. County, gives you a sense that even though the county has Measure B, which generates $420 million a year just for trauma and EMS, there is still a need for funding,” said Kielpinski. “That’s because the reimbursement system inside the healthcare system doesn’t sustain normal operations. You have to augment it.”
He further explained that when HR1, the Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July of 2025, the county realized a lot of changes were being made to how reimbursements in healthcare are handled. Therefore, another measure was developed to make the county hospitals could be sustained. According to Kielpinski, CIH doesn’t yet know the amount of funding it will receive from Measure ER but they will report out once they receive that information.
He said CIH’s goal is to be fully sustainable and not be reliant on these outside funding sources. He feels they are getting close. At the moment, they are very grateful those measures are in place. Moving on to Measure C. That ½ cent local sales tax was passed by the city 26 years ago. Measure H was passed in 2020, strictly for the use of constructing a new replacement hospital that is seismically compliant to meet the state’s standards. Measure B was passed by the county about 20 years ago, and just recently, last July CIH received its first disbursement from the measure. Since then, they’ve had additional payments in January and July of this year. CIH is now halfway through the three years of Measure B funding promised by the LA County Board of Supervisors.
Kielpinski expanded on this, explaining that CIH is eligible because its EMS system is part of LA County’s EMS system. The county realized they couldn’t afford to have CIH close. Instead of 250 medevac flights each year, there would be 1,000 – 1,200 medevac flights.
He circled back to the support of LA County and shared that the health deputies from LA County Board of Supervisors Districts 5 and 2 are coming in a couple of weeks to visit the hospital.
On to the IGT which allows CIH to utilized Measure C funds for a match by the federal government. This was executed last year, and the opportunity has come up again. He shared he will not be in town next week when the IGT proposal will be brought to the council by city staff for a vote to move forward. He said it appears that the Measure C funds that CIH asked the city to hold onto and not distribute to CIH, should accumulate to close to the $545,000 that they are allowed to get through that program this year.
“If you remember last year, we qualified for $2.3 million,” said Kielpinski. “However, the state said there was only $900,000 in the IGT bucket for Catalina. This year, we qualified for $2.8 million, and they said there’s only $545,000 available this year.”
CIH has not been able to figure out what drove that yet. The breakdown of those dollars is determined by the Department of Health Care Services, in Sacramento. He said even though it’s a smaller number than it was last year, CIH encourages the council to direct the city manager to sign the contract committing the city to send those funds to Sacramento. It would likely sit there for a month or two and then the federal government would match it. They then send a check back to the city to be distributed to CIH. Within a month or two, CIH would reimburse the city – essentially immediately – for any funds that it had transferred.
He also shared a reminder that last year it was around $900,000 that was transferred and within a few months, CIH had paid the city back. The goal is that if the state approves a larger number for this process in the future, that the city would feel comfortable with CIH, this process and its ability to pay the city back.
New replacement hospital update
Kielpinski said there was not a lot of concrete news to report.
“I know everybody’s wondering. I’ve even heard, well … if they ever build it,” Kielpinski said. “I’m telling you, we’re going to build it. It’s just, which direction do we go?”
He shared that the first direction was up in Quail Canyon, with a hospital size of 70,000 square feet and a price tag of $250 million. That wasn’t going to work. CIH tried to narrow it down to 55,000 square feet, but to do so, they were starting to remove services that they had determined would be appropriate for the community. That solution was still around $220 million. He shared they are now pursuing another solution that drops the square footage to around 31,000, but also keeps all the services it wants, possibly more. It also drops the price tag, too. He anticipates that in early Fall he’ll be able to share more details and clarity of that solution. He assured the council that once he has definitive news to share, he will do so.
Commercial insurance contracts
Kielpinski has reported previously about CIH renegotiating many of its commercial insurance payer contracts. The goal of renegotiating the contracts is to be able to accept more health insurance plans, especially those utilized by the community. For example, CIH’s contract with Blue Cross has been in place since 1988. Renegotiating that contract will allow CIH to accept not only the PPO from Blue Cross but all its plans.
“We just today signed one with Health Net, that includes the HMO, the PPO, the EPS, the POS, Medicaid, and Medicare,” Kielpinski said. “So, every product that they have, we have a contract with them. We’re also very close with both Blue Cross and Blue Shield to have new contracts. Those will also include Medicare, HMO and PPO. We’ll put that out to the community when it’s done. Then we’ll encourage you to talk to your health benefit brokers, at your different HR departments, and tell them which insurance plan you want.”
In addition to HealthNet, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, he shared they were working on new contracts with Cigna, Aetna and United Health as well.
New CT machine
Kielpinski has previously reported that CIH was getting a new CT machine with the help of a $1.4 million grant from LA County’s Measure B and the support of the LA County Board of Supervisors. This grant is separate from the other Measure B funds CIH is currently receiving. It is finally being delivered!
The specific dates for install are still fluctuating as the company accidentally shipped one of the crates to Shanghai. It then had to go through customs and caused a delay. Either way, Kielpinski reported that in the next few weeks, a brand-new CT machine will be there. CIH is excited about this new machine as it has a grade of A from the federal government’s Center of Medicaid Medicare Services for doing a colonoscopy with the CT. He clarified that if you got a colonoscopy here, and they see a polyp that needs to be removed, the patient would have to go to the mainland for procedure. However, if everything is clean, a trip to the mainland would be avoided and that whole process could happen here. More will be shared in the next few weeks as that gets installed.
Catalinaville is this weekend
He shared that the hospital’s fundraiser, Catalinaville, was happening on Saturday at Descanso Beach Club and it is sold out. He said next year they will share the information with the council earlier in case they would like to participate.
If you have questions about the current operations or new replacement hospital, CIH encourages you to reach out to Gail Fornasiere, Director of Planned Giving and Community Engagement at gf*********@*******th.org or 310-510-0096 x233.
The next presentation is planned for the September 2026 City Council meeting.
About Catalina Island Health
CI Health’s primary care physicians and family nurse practitioners provide the island community with a solid foundation of care. Visit CatalinaIslandHealth.org or call 310-510-0096 for more information or to make an appointment. The hospital’s main number is 310-510-0700.