Research shows that integrating mental health into primary care services can increase access to mental health care, improve patient outcomes, and reduce health care costs. While many safety-net providers have made strides toward offering integrated services, most people covered by Medi-Cal get their care outside the safety net, where such integration has not yet taken hold. This paper focuses on opportunities to support practice change in these settings.

This issue brief outlines why these old payment rules are hurting patients during the COVID-19 crisis, and how transitioning to a new way of paying for care, called patient-centered payment, will allow health centers to better serve patients going forward.

Old payment rules are hindering health centers’ ability to care for their seven million patients, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. This infographic shows what kind of care is possible for patients under traditional versus patient-centered payment.

As the demand for palliative care has expanded into California’s immense and disparate rural areas, health plans and providers have faced unique challenges. This report describes key lessons from the CHCF rural palliative care initiative, which are intended to help health plans and providers understand the challenges and consider possible solutions to support delivery of palliative care in rural areas.