Under the CalAIM initiative, managed care plans have the option of offering up to 14 Community Supports — nontraditional services that can help address some of Medi-Cal enrollees’ health-related social needs. One of these supports is recuperative care, also known as medical respite. This assistance couples housing and basic clinical care for people who are unsheltered who need a safe place to fully recover from a hospital stay or emergency room visit but don’t require additional inpatient care.

While recuperative care programs have a long track record of success, offering these services through managed care represents a significant change for plans and for the state’s recuperative care providers — most of which are small, nonprofit, grant-funded organizations that have traditionally worked directly with hospitals.

Lessons from the Field: How an Ad Hoc Stakeholder Network Is Helping Redefine Medical Respite Care in Los Angeles, available in Document Downloads below, provides a case study of how one local network of providers, hospitals, and plans — the Los Angeles Recuperative Care Learning Network, or LARC — is finding a way forward. Participants are working together to identify and overcome barriers to effectively provide health services through CalAIM to people in the region who are unhoused.

LARC first coalesced in 2021 to help as many recuperative care providers as possible begin contracting with managed care plans in anticipation of CalAIM’s launch the next year. The report details how local providers began meeting to discuss shared challenges, from reimbursement rates and patient responsibilities to referral eligibility — and have built productive new relationships with the Department of Health Care Services, L.A. Care, and the region’s hospitals, which are working together to address the challenges.