For nearly two decades, the California Improvement Network (CIN) has built quality improvement skills within health care organizations. Through CIN, delivery systems, health plans, and supporting organizations have tested solutions to challenges such as behavioral health integration and provider burnout. In 2022, CHCF set out to
reimagine CIN as a vehicle to advance health equity, with a focus on Medi-Cal enrollees. As a result, this year CIN will include community-based organizations (CBOs) for the first time. Tighter partnerships between CBOs — experts at meeting patients’ nonmedical needs — and health care organizations are needed to provide whole-person care to Medi-Cal enrollees. CIN will bring organizations together to work through knotty questions about how to make those partnerships successful. Read more about these changes to CIN.
CIN includes 25 partner organizations in total.
Medi-Cal policy and payment changes under California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) will make it easier for long-term nursing home patients to transition to settings in the community.
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In Los Angeles County, a 10-year-old program has moved 20,000 formerly homeless people with complex health needs into housing. It now serves as a model for communities nationwide.
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This handbook aims to support managed care plans in establishing and strengthening partnerships with homeless and housing service providers. Over four chapters, the handbook covers key considerations, useful steps, and best practices that managed care plan staff will need to successfully implement the housing-related Community Supports services under CalAIM.
CHCF’s Sandra R. Hernández, MD, will join the Department of Health Care Access and Information's Elizabeth Landsberg and UCSF’s Janet Coffman, PhD, MA, MPP, to discuss behavioral health staffing shortages and strategies to address the behavioral health workforce crisis. Register for this online event from Healthforce Center at UCSF on Monday, February 13, at 1:30 PM (PT).
Stories That Caught Our Attention
- Meet CIELO: The Indigenous Mother-Daughter Led Social Justice Org (Good Good Good)
CIELO, which translates to “Heaven,” is a Los Angeles-based organization providing holistic support to over 30 Indigenous groups in the area. It provides translation services; connects migrants to translators for border documentation; and addresses myriad social, economic, health, and cultural needs. Related: In November, CHCF profiled the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, another organization helping to meet the health needs of indigenous Californians.
- San Francisco's Only Trauma Hospital Faces Enormous Staffing Challenge: ‘If We Don’t Have Staff, People Will Die’ (San Francisco Chronicle – paywall)
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital says it faces enormous staffing difficulties that have led to employee burnout, retention challenges, and difficulty hiring workers in an extremely competitive market.
- Hundreds of Hospitals Sue Patients or Threaten Their Credit, a KHN Investigation Finds. Does Yours? (California Healthline)
Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of US hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers, and reporting patients to credit rating agencies. Related: One in four Californians say they or someone in their family had problems paying at least one medical bill in the past 12 months, according to CHCF's statewide poll.
- After Madera’s Hospital Closure, Could Others Follow? (CalMatters)
Under financial strain, the lone hospital in this Central Valley county closed its doors this month. Legislators and industry officials say other hospitals across the state may suffer the same fate. Related: Many hospitals have joined a multi-hospital system in hopes of greater financial stability, but it has led to mixed results, as described in this CHCF paper.
- A History of Medical Maltreatment Continues to Kill Black Americans (Capital & Main)
In an insightful interview, CHCF senior program officer Katherine Haynes discusses the findings of the foundation's Listening to Black Californians survey. Haynes and UCSF medical student Wynton Sims were also guests on KQED Forum to discuss existing disparities and potential paths to support an equitable health care system for Black Californians.
- Mental Health Is Major Hurdle to Solving California’s Homelessness Crisis (The Observer)
About 25% of the adult homeless population in Los Angeles County deal with severe mental health issues according to a report from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. New guidelines from California's Department of Health Care Services should make it easier for communities to fully leverage street medicine programs. Related: Read CHCF's issue brief about the guidelines.
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