2,600 Medi-Cal Cards Sent To Wrong Families

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California health officials say they sent more than 2,600 Medi-Cal benefit ID cards to the wrong families but there's little chance of the mistake leading to fraud or identity theft.

The Department of Health Care Services says the cards, which included names and birthdates, were for children in the Healthy Families insurance program who will be switched to Medi-Cal next month.

The agency says it learned about the error on Wednesday and determined the cards were placed in wrong envelopes because of a computer programming error.

Health officials say they took immediate action to notify the affected families and correct the mistake.

The state is shutting down the Healthy Families program to save money and over the next year plans to move 860,000 children to HMOs participating in Medi-Cal.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)