Jacey Cooper, California’s Medicaid Director,  gives us an on-the-ground look at California’s pathbreaking CalAIM initiative that pairs intensive care management with access to a broad range of social services. It’s been a year since the program launched and Jacey reflects on how much communication, coordination, planning and agility was needed to implement a program of this size and breadth. Claudia and Jacey talk about opportunities and challenges as plans and providers navigate new benefits and participate in local housing, food, and community development conversations. 

We discuss: 

• Lessons learned from the first year of CalAIM including the need for more standardization of social care benefits across health plans 
• More details about the first-of-its-kind Justice Initiative which provides pre-release Medicaid services to people in jail and prison
• Behavioral health redesign, payment reform, transitions of care, and administrative integration of mental health and substance use disorder services

Jacey says whole person care is truly a community effort:

"As a collective force, we're making sure that plans are adapted to work with community-based organizations that have been championing these efforts for years. This is why we're focusing on embedding ourselves in the different aspects of care continuums - like housing and homelessness - within our local groups. We have to be present to have a voice in the decision-making, planning, and connection of individuals to vital services. It's not just about navigating people to housing, but ensuring they're connected to voucher programs too."

#healthcare #investments #housing #medicaid #health #socialdeterminantsofhealth #managedcare 

Relevant Links

CalAIM Primer [PDF]

Final Evaluation of California’s Whole Person Care Pilots [PDF]

Fact Sheet on CalAIM Justice-Involved Initiative [PDF]

Fact Sheet on CalAIM Population Health Management [PDF]

Fact Sheets on CalAIM Community Supports [PDF 1] [PDF 2]

Reflections on CalAIM’s first year [Blog]

About Our Guest

Jacey Cooper serves as State Medicaid Director and Chief Deputy Director for Health Care Programs at the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Ms. Cooper is responsible for the overall leadership of Benefits, Eligibility, Delivery Systems, Financing, Behavioral Health, Quality, and Population Health. Prior to serving as State Medicaid Director, Jacey served in various roles at DHCS beginning in April 2016. Prior to her work at DHCS, Ms. Cooper was Vice President at Kern Medical Center, a public hospital and a health care consultant. Through that work, she gained more than 15 years’ experience in health care policy, operations, integrated delivery models, managed care, business development, and quality monitoring.

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For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn.