Health Net Talks Children's Care Management at State Health Policy Conference

Date: 09/20/23

On September 6, 2023, the Westin Hotel Pasadena played host to the California State of Reform Health Policy Conference. Many were on hand to learn all they could about what happens at the junction of healthcare and politics. Breakout sessions took place that featured local health policy issues of interest to Southern California counties that include:

• Los Angeles
• Orange
• Ventura
• San Bernardino
• Riverside

One breakout session, Implementing Case Management & CalAIM to Improve Children’s Health featured Health Net’s own Senior Director of Systems of Care, Nancy Wongvipat Kalev. Nancy joined fellow panel members to discuss how CalAIM’s programs for children are being implemented. And how the programs offer great insight into our California children’s unique needs and locales. Programs that include:

• Enhanced care management (ECM)
• Community supports (CS)
• Community health workers (CHW)
• Doula services
• Dyadic care

"CalAIM’s implementation for children and youth allows us to intervene upstream by supporting children and youth before they [have] complex physical, behavioral or developmental needs." Nancy said.

During her talk, Nancy cited ways in which Health Net has helped promote the range of children and youth CalAIM services. For instance, Health Net is working with local children and youth-serving providers to inform them about the inner workings of ECM – along with helping them to become an ECM provider and/or a referral source. To ensure this effort, Health Net has:

• Launched a webinar Children & Youth Series with the Health Management Associates. This series presents a means for providers and others to learn about ECM. It also presents a unique forum to discuss the needs and services available for the children and youth Population of Focus (POF) in California.
• Partnered with the PATH Collaborative Planning & Implementation Initiatives (CPIs) to provide joint presentations to stakeholders. This helps to:
  • Increase awareness of this POF 
  • Ensure future providers know how to contract to serve this POF
  • Ensure providers know how to find and refer to ECM

Nancy also stressed that CalAIM and managed care plans – like Health Net – must also engage many new providers and community organizations to help make children’s care management a success.

"Unlike adults, many of the eligible children and youth are already embedded in various systems of care, such as child welfare and CCS. This elevates the role of current providers, such as child welfare organizations, to become ECM providers themselves.” Nancy said. “[This will help to] transform the provider network makeup within our managed care landscape".