https://youtu.be/uQrDoR-RWdY

What They’re Watching: Jonathan Freedman, Health Management Associates

By

Eli Kirshbaum

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For Jonathan Freedman, Regional Vice President at Health Management Associates, the “enormous surge of activity” happening in California’s Medi-Cal program is the most important things to watch in state health policy. CalAIM is transforming how the state delivers health care and, with initial program rollouts having started in January, it is significantly changing the work of all siloes in the California health sector.

Key happenings in the Medi-Cal space, Freedman says, are the recent procurement for Medi-Cal Managed Care contracts and the impending redetermination of Medi-Cal coverage for Californians once the public health emergency ends.

“What’s being asked of the Medi-Cal delivery system is to work together in ways that have been very hard for those actors—both payers, delivery system entities, as well as non-medical social supports—to work together,” Freedman said. “So how all that’s stitched together, the degree to which we have administrative and clinical data sharing, which is critical to making any of this work, are really the implementation challenges that all of the parties are facing.”