Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are a critical provider of health care, particularly for communities of color and Medicaid beneficiaries. It is vital that health centers are financially and operationally stable so they can continue to effectively provide patients with primary care, behavioral health, and dental services.

Since the fall of 2019, Aurrera Health Group has been working closely with the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to launch the ACEs Aware initiative – a first-in-the-nation, statewide effort to promote screening for early detection of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and mitigate against the health and societal impacts of ACEs and toxic stress.

Prepared for the California Health Care Foundation by Aurrera Health Group and Capital Link, this paper identifies several key factors that enabled California’s health centers to manage the financial strain exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to serve patients at a time when accessing health care involved new and unanticipated challenges.

Prepared for the DHCS and CDSS CalAIM Workgroup, this report explores ways to better integrate services, provide a single contact for children, and ensure access to specialty care in the child welfare system.

The enhanced care management benefit (ECM) and in lieu of services (ILOS) proposed under the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal build upon the successes of California’s 25 Whole Person Care (WPC) pilots.

Launched in 2015, the Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System (DMC-ODS) is nation’s first Medicaid Section 1115 waiver to expand access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services.

The Health Homes Program (HHP) is a Medi-Cal initiative that helps manage and coordinate care for enrollees with certain chronic health and/or mental health conditions who have high health care needs or who are experiencing chronic homelessness.

By Trish Violett, Junior Policy Consultant and Megan Thomas, Director, Quality Initiatives

Over the past four years, the 52 hospitals and health systems participating in the California Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) program have been working to improve care delivery and maximize health care value through a “pay-for-performance” model. The PRIME hospitals are using evidence-based quality improvement methods to achieve designated goals and outcomes on select clinical projects and associated performance metrics.