County Public Health to Discontinue Some Services, Outsource to Private Pharmacies

Facing a tightening budget driven by cuts at the state and federal levels, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department will hand off its pharmacy, blood-drawing, and several specialty clinic services to private providers beginning with the new fiscal year on July 1. The county's Board of Supervisors approved the changes in a 5-0 vote on Tuesday, June 16, during its final budget session before the current fiscal year closes.

The sweeping service realignment affects thousands of low-income and uninsured county residents who have long relied on Public Health clinics for affordable prescriptions, routine lab work, and subspecialty care — and it arrives against the backdrop of what officials are calling the county's first operating-budget decrease in more than a decade.

What Is Actually Changing

The most significant financial move involves pharmacy services. Under the new plan, most patients will fill prescriptions at commercial pharmacies such as Walgreens rather than at county-run dispensaries, according to Noozhawk. For uninsured patients or those with limited means, prescriptions will be filled at the Lompoc Health Care Center Pharmacy and then delivered for pickup at satellite locations in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. Pharmacy services at the Franklin and Carpinteria Health Care Centers are not affected. Public Health Director Mouhanad Hammami told supervisors that patients will continue to pay the same prices at partner pharmacies and that multiple Walgreens locations sit within a few miles of county health centers. The pharmacy transition alone is expected to save approximately $8.46 million annually, Noozhawk reported.

In-house phlebotomy — the blood-drawing services currently offered at county clinics — will also end. Those services will shift to Quest Diagnostics and Pacific Diagnostic Laboratories, a local independent lab that operates as a subsidiary of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Hammami said the replacement providers are all within two miles of existing county health centers and will offer longer, more consistent business hours. That transition is projected to save an additional $530,000 per year.

Finally, the Santa Barbara Clinic will discontinue specialty services including nephrology, urology, neurology, and gastroenterology. Hammami noted those hours amounted to roughly four hours a month for a small patient cohort, and that many of the same specialists have agreed to see those patients at their private practices under equivalent sliding-scale fees. Patients are being referred to specialists in the CenCal Health network, and county staff are actively helping coordinate appointments, transfer medical records, and provide transition-of-care support. Eliminating those specialty services reduces annual costs by $231,000.

Combined, the three changes are expected to trim approximately $9.22 million from the department's yearly operating costs.

The Budget Pressure Behind the Cuts

These changes don't happen in a vacuum. The county's FY 2026-27 Recommended Budget totals $1.66 billion in operating expenditures — a 1.7 percent reduction from the prior year's adopted operating budget and the first operating-budget decrease in more than a decade, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. County leaders have framed it as a two-year balancing strategy shaped by falling state and federal revenue.

As early as May, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported that the county was eyeing elimination of as many as 131 filled positions and 118 vacant roles across departments as part of a broader effort to cut more than $70 million. At the time, pharmacy closures were already on the table, with officials estimating the move would eliminate nine staff positions — seven of them filled — at a savings of roughly $8.4 million. County CEO Mona Miyasato described an environment of "national uncertainty and inflation pressures, state deficits, federal changes to our major safety net programs and continued local pressures," the News-Press reported.

Labor Groups Push Back

Not everyone in the hearing room Tuesday supported the direction. Leo Decasaus, a field representative for the Service Employees International Union, addressed the Board of Supervisors and pushed back on the pharmacy and service cuts, warning that outsourcing to private companies offers no guarantee that the sliding payment scale will be maintained long-term. He also raised concerns about the county laying off pharmacy technicians.

"Shifting care outward and reducing these services does not eliminate the need," Decasaus said, per Noozhawk. "It shifts the burden onto our most vulnerable residents, our most vulnerable patients, and creates uncertainty."

SEIU's concern predates Tuesday's meeting. In May, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported that Laura Robinson, executive director of SEIU Local 620 — which represents nearly 2,200 county employees — had been urging members facing layoff notifications to stay engaged while the union lobbied for alternatives, including early retirement incentives.

Supervisor Calls for Accountability; Hotline Launched

Supervisor Steve Lavagnino voted in favor of the changes but asked department staff to report back on their outreach to affected patients. "I'm just trying to make sure no one falls through the cracks," Lavagnino said, according to Noozhawk.

Director Hammami struck a more optimistic note, saying the shift to community partnerships will ultimately give patients "more choices, better hours and more reliable access."

The new fiscal year begins July 1, 2026. Residents with questions about how the changes affect their care can call the county's 24-hour public information line at 805.681.5100. County staff are continuing to work with impacted patients on appointment coordination and medical-records transfers as the transition gets underway.