Medicaid

Lessons Learned from Implementing a Practice Automation Platform in the Safety Net

Investing in Innovation

This report evaluates the effectiveness of Charlie, a practice automation platform developed by CHCF investee healthfinch, in safety-net settings. Two Federally Qualified Health Centers implemented Charlie, and both saw positive changes, including to time spent on refills, efficiency of refills, and provider satisfaction.

Whole Person Care Pilot Program: A Mid-Point Check-In

Lucy Pagel, Carol Backstrom, Hilary Haycock

Behavioral Health

Across California, 25 pilot programs are working to closely coordinate physical and behavioral health care with social services to help Medi-Cal enrollees with high-cost, complex needs. This paper provides an update on their progress and outlines remaining challenges.

Undocumented Adults Face ‘Shifting Patchwork of Programs’ in California

Xenia Shih Bion

Expanding Health Coverage

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Journalists describe the uneven local programs providing care for California’s undocumented adults.

How Medi-Cal’s Fiscal Balancing Act Could Soon Become More Challenging

Medi-Cal’s best-kept secret is that even with the program’s rising enrollment and costs in recent years, its financial impact on California’s General Fund has been relatively small. That could change amid uncertainty over new financing issues.

Health Workforce Shortages Make Telehealth a Lifeline to Rural Care

Anne Sunderland

Workforce, Telehealth, Medi-Cal

Telehealth can help solve California's rural health workforce shortage by more quickly and conveniently connecting patients to distant providers, cutting long travel times and wait lists.

Explaining Medi-Cal

February 27, 2019

Kristof Stremikis

CHCF has launched Medi-Cal Explained, a project that will include papers and briefings describing how the nation’s largest Medicaid program organizes, finances, and provides care for Californians with low incomes.

Making Quality Matter in Medi-Cal Managed Care

This report describes approaches many states are taking to use financial incentives with Medicaid managed care plans to accelerate quality improvements. There is an opportunity to build on current quality improvement efforts in Medi-Cal managed care, led by the California Department of Health Care Services, through financial incentives.

Medi-Cal Explained

Medi-Cal is the foundation of California’s health care safety net and a major component of the state’s budget. The Medi-Cal Explained series provides an overview of the program, including the people it serves, the services it provides, and how it is organized, managed, and financed.

Medi-Cal and Behavioral Health Services

Health Management Associates

Medi-Cal, Behavioral Health

This fact sheet provides a high-level overview of how mental and behavioral health issues are managed in the Medi-Cal program.

Medi-Cal Payment to Managed Care Plans: Current Process and Challenges

Health Management Associates, Athena Chapman, Chapman Consulting

This fact sheet provides an overview of Medi-Cal managed care plans and how they are structured.

The Medi-Cal Program: An Overview

Health Management Associates, Athena Chapman, Chapman Consulting

This publication offers an overview of the Medi-Cal program, which provides health coverage in California for children and their parents with low incomes, pregnant women, seniors, and nonelderly adults, including people with disabilities.

Medi-Cal Eligibility and Enrollment: Current Status and Challenges

Health Management Associates

This fact sheet provides an overview of the eligibility determination and enrollment process for the Medi-Cal program.

The Medi-Cal Budget

Health Management Associates

This fact sheet describes the organization, funding sources, and process for developing the Medi-Cal program budget.

On the Art of Dying Well

February 21, 2019

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

A conversation with California author Katy Butler, whose new book spotlights the perverse financial incentives that promote overtreatment and overdiagnosis of patients while failing to reward relationships, thoughtfulness, and harm reduction.

The 2019 Kaiser Family Foundation / CHCF California Health Policy Survey

Behavioral Health, Workforce, Medi-Cal

Access to mental health care is a top concern statewide.