Health Net Presents on Improving Quality of Care for Low-Income Californians through CalAIM Initiative

Date: 07/15/22

Martha Santana-Chin, Medi-Cal President of Health Net, spoke at the State of Reform Health Policy Conference to talk about what California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) means for Californians.

Medi-Cal is California's safety net for low-income residents. It offers health care for those who do not have it. CalAIM is a plan to strengthen that program. Those who qualify for CalAIM benefits will receive specific Community Supports — social services designed to improve their health. These services include housing supports, medically tailored meals, access to day habilitation programs and several other services.

As part of the CalAIM launch, Health Net invested millions of dollars in innovations to the Medi-Cal framework. This included projects like the timely reporting of accurate patient data and adding new, more representative providers into the system.

Under CalAIM, health plans can contract with community providers. In cases where those providers have not worked with a managed care plan before, Health Net can invoice and pay the provider. Health Net is also partnering with FindHelp and Community Information Exchanges to support referrals to services and provider connections. This work has had a helpful outcome for Medi-Cal members.

There are several key lessons that emerged after looking at Health Net's programs, all with the goal of improving patients' access to care. These lessons include the importance of:

• Investing in data and leverage insights to ground interventions in human connection
• Ensuring that solutions are not too complex — simplicity is key
• Meeting patients where they are and through channels they trust

We know better health outcomes begin with access to quality care. Working with CalAIM, our models provide seamless, organized care for our members at every stage of life.

To read more Health Net reports and lessons learned, visit our Resource Library.