Placer County’s Board of Supervisors will consider transitioning county-run medical clinics in Auburn and Kings Beach to private operation in a public hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. on July 12 at the Placer County Community Development Resource Center, 3091 County Center Drive, in Auburn. Notices announcing the public hearing were posted this morning at county medical buildings in accordance with state law. If the transition to private operation is approved at the hearing, residents will receive similar levels of service at a cost savings of approximately $3.6 million to county taxpayers per year.

Last November the board of supervisors directed the Placer County Department of Health and Human Services to solicit proposals from medical organizations to take over care for patients served by the two clinics. Placer County HHS received four different proposals. Western Sierra Medical Clinic, a non-profit safety-net medical provider currently operating clinics in Yuba, Sierra and Nevada counties, was judged to have the highest rated proposal.

If approved at the hearing, the medical clinics in Auburn and Kings Beach, which offer primary care, immunizations, and dental services (Kings Beach only), would be transitioned to Western Sierra Medical Clinic later this year. Western Sierra Medical Clinic already has plans to open a new clinic in Auburn later this summer, independent of the results of the July 12 hearing.