Members of major Medi-Cal health plans—Anthem Blue Cross and Health Net—spoke at the 2023 State of Reform Northern California Health Policy Conference about their preparations for Medi-Cal redeterminations. After a three-year pause in conducting redeterminations due to the public health emergency’s continuous coverage benefit, the state began its redetermination process on April 1st for beneficiaries … Read more
While the COVID-19 pandemic brought endless challenges, Medi-Cal beneficiaries were able to maintain their coverage for three consecutive years, but due to the end of the federal public health emergency’s continuous Medicaid coverage requirement, California is beginning to disenroll members who are deemed no longer eligible. Health Net, a Medi-Cal health plan, is honing in … Read more
To advance health equity, quality, access, accountability, and transparency, new Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan (MCPs) Contracts will take effect across the state of California starting in January 2024. MCPs play a vital role in CalAIM, which stands for California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal, and will prioritize prevention and whole-person care. Under the new contracts, Blue … Read more
Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his May Revision of the 2023-24 state budget, which calls for reinstating a managed care organization (MCO) tax in the state. An MCO tax—which was previously in place for over a decade, with the most recent tax having expired in December—would allow California to receive federal matching funds … Read more
On May 12th, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his May Revision proposal of the 2023-2024 state budget. Despite a $32 billion shortfall, California associations are praising the revision for maintaining and protecting investments in healthcare. Since the 2022 Budget Act was enacted last June following two years of growth, revenues have consistently fallen short of monthly … Read more
CalAIM, California’s multi-year initiative to transform Medi-Cal, has already met numerous key milestones regarding program implementation, which early data shows to have improved stabilization among enrollees. The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) feels prepared to implement more going into the summer. The purpose of CalAIM is to transform Medi-Cal into a more coordinated, person-centered, … Read more
On March 20th, the California Nurses Association joined Asm. Matt Haney (D – San Francisco) outside of St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco to welcome the introduction of Assembly Bill 1001. The bill would create standards and procedures for hospitals to ensure staffing levels are available to immediately respond to behavioral health emergencies in … Read more
In this edition, we provide an update on some of the work underway to prepare for Medi-Cal redeterminations, conversations in the legislature about how to respond to the high rate of older adults experiencing homelessness, information about San Diego County’s first naloxone vending machine, and more. We recently released the Topical Agenda for the 2023 Northern California … Read more
On Monday, the California Medical Association announced seven priority bills for the 2023 legislative session, which include a bill to expand cultural and linguistic competency, and two bills relating to reproductive healthcare. Assembly Bill 470 aims to ensure that continued medical education in the state takes into account the growing linguistic diversity of California’s population. … Read more
As California is set to start disenrolling Medi-Cal members who are deemed no longer eligible, Medi-Cal health plans like Health Net have launched initiatives to inform and educate the public about the redeterminations process. This is the first time in three years that Medi-Cal members will undergo a redetermination process. In anticipation of this substantial … Read more