Medi-Cal Explained: Administration of Non-Specialty Mental Health Services

In California, nearly all people insured through Medi-Cal are enrolled in a managed care plan. Medi-Cal managed care plans are responsible for physical health care services and a limited set of mental health services for children and adults. For example, an adult with a mild or moderate depression or anxiety diagnosis would receive treatment services through their managed care plan. These are known as “non-specialty mental health services” or NSMHS.

Medi-Cal managed care plans cover these services in one of two ways:

• “In-house,” wherein the plans contract directly with behavioral care providers and manage all aspects of providing NSMHS to their members.
• Through contracts with specialized behavioral health care plans, which maintain networks of behavioral health providers to deliver these services for the plans’ members. The two behavioral health care plans used by Medi-Cal managed care plans are Carelon Behavioral Health and MHN.

Medi-Cal Explained: Administration of Non-Specialty Mental Health Services lists all 2024 Medi-Cal managed care plans and indicates how they cover non-specialty mental health services.

An additional CHCF fact sheet, Medi-Cal Explained: 2024 Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans by County offers county-by-county breakdowns of where managed care plan will operate beginning in 2024.

Both fact sheets are available for download below.