{"id":268987,"date":"2024-06-27T12:12:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T19:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=268987"},"modified":"2024-07-11T13:51:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:51:32","slug":"how-medi-cal-is-becoming-more-equitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/how-medi-cal-is-becoming-more-equitable\/","title":{"rendered":"How Medi-Cal is Becoming More Equitable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>California has been leading the nation in efforts to close health care access gaps by transforming Medi-Cal. Despite achieving its lowest uninsured rate in 2022, many Californians still face significant barriers to accessing health care, leading to higher rates of illness and death, especially among low-income individuals and communities of color.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a media briefing on June 18, hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ethnic Media Services<\/a>, a panel of experts discussed the ongoing transformation of Medi-Cal and the challenges that lie in its tracks.<b> <\/b>The DHCS embarked on a statewide journey to listen to Medi-Cal members who have experienced health inequity. The feedback collected will go towards redesigning Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Speakers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268988 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"278\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers.jpg 800w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers-300x104.jpg 300w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers-150x52.jpg 150w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers-768x267.jpg 768w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers-672x234.jpg 672w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/06-18-24-MediCal-Headed-speakers-400x139.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Pamela Riley<\/b>, Chief Health Equity Officer and Assistant Deputy Director, Quality and Population Health Management, Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)<\/li>\n<li><b>Debbie Toth<\/b>, President and CEO, Choice in Aging<\/li>\n<li><b>Michael Whalen<\/b>, Program Director, The Bedford Center, Choice in Aging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h4><b>Equity in Medi-Cal<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>Pamela believes that it shouldn\u2019t matter where you live and who you are, healthcare is a human right and should be equitable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Riley highlights that with about 15 million Californians enrolled, Medi-Cal has already made significant strides toward advancing equity. She mentioned that as of January 1, 2024, Medi-Cal coverage is available to all income-eligible individuals, regardless of age or immigration status.<\/p>\n<p>Other notable measures include eliminating asset limits so that your income is the only aspect considered when determining eligibility for Medi-Cal, establishing a Member Advisory Committee for feedback on Medi-Cal programs, expanding language access to include 18 languages, and creating new Community Supports that offer services beyond traditional health care, such as housing assistance, home accessibility modifications, healthy meals, and transportation to and from medical appointments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo listen to our members more directly to understand where our greatest health disparities lie and how we can improve them, DHCS also launched its three-phase Health Equity Roadmap Initiative,\u201d said Riley.<\/p>\n<p>The first phase, already completed, involved DHCS staff conducting 11 listening sessions hosted by community-based organizations across the state. Hundreds of Medi-Cal members shared the challenges they faced in accessing health care, with a particular focus on communities of color, individuals with disabilities, those in rural areas, and those with behavioral health issues such as substance use disorders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe often heard from members that they wanted Medi-Cal to cover certain services which were already covered \u2014 like dental, vision or mental health care \u2014 which told us that our communication could be improved,\u201d Riley explained.<\/p>\n<p>She also noted that members wanted to feel respected and heard in their native languages, leading to a requirement for all health care facilities to provide interpretation services in 18 threshold languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Hmong, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside a report on the feedback from the listening tour, which will be released next year, the second phase will involve using this feedback to identify common themes. The third phase will outline specific steps to enhance the accessibility of Medi-Cal services.<\/p>\n<h4><b>Closing Health Access Gaps on the Ground<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>\u201cIn my 22 years here, there has never been anything like this. This is historic,\u201d said Debbie Toth. Toth from Choice of Aging, one of the listening session hosts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDHCS reached out to us about talking with patients at our Bedford Center in Antioch,\u201d Toth explained. The center primarily provides Alzheimer\u2019s day health care and transition care from or to nursing facilities. \u201cBecause you could see the social determinants of health at play. We have elderly adults, but also younger low-income participants who may be in their 50s, yet their physical health is like somebody in their 80s. They may be unhoused, or have substance use or mental health support needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur biggest challenge was that we\u2019re working with a population with a lot of cognitive impairments, like mid-to-late-stage dementia, who can\u2019t always express what they need directly,\u201d Toth continued. \u201cSo Michael, our program director, broke the participants into small tables while also engaging their caregivers to better understand everyone\u2019s needs for easier health care and language access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother challenge is that we\u2019d always like to enroll more people, but we\u2019re the only adult day health care center in the area,\u201d added Michael Whalen, program director of The Bedford Center. \u201cMany of our at-home caregivers are quite elderly themselves, so we had a unique opportunity to coordinate solutions for both them and their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Toth also highlighted financial challenges. \u201cWe have the DHCS Health Equity Roadmap, we have the California Master Plan for Aging, these policy frameworks set up to support people in their communities,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if we have a recession, a change in administration, if we can\u2019t pay livable wages, we lose the infrastructure, like we already are with the massive closures of adult day health care centers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of June 2024, California has fewer than 300 adult day health facilities, compared to 365 before the Great Recession, when statewide closures began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur greatest marker of success is keeping people out of skilled nursing facilities who don\u2019t want to be there,\u201d Toth said. \u201cOur current de facto long-term care system is warehousing folks as they age or become disabled, and what\u2019s so incredible is the community focus that DHCS has, rather than an institutional focus. They\u2019re not just giving out questionnaires to clinics, but actually learning from the community whether their needs are being met.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Toth shared an example of the importance of humility in addressing community needs. \u201cWhen I started at Choice in Aging, there were Russian, Farsi, and English programs, but no Spanish program for our Spanish-speaking community members, so I created one. However, I quickly learned that they did not want it,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were people from El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and their message was: \u2018Just because we share a language, we don\u2019t necessarily share a combined interest.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a lesson to be learned,\u201d Toth added. \u201cOur needs aren\u2019t necessarily based on one characteristic we share. It\u2019s important to ask with humility what everyone\u2019s needs really are, and then adapt, which is how DHCS is leading Medi-Cal right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California has been leading the nation in efforts to close health care access gaps by transforming Medi-Cal. Despite achieving its lowest uninsured rate in 2022, many Californians still face significant barriers to accessing health care, leading to higher rates of illness and death, especially among low-income individuals and communities of color.\u00a0 In a media briefing&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/how-medi-cal-is-becoming-more-equitable\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":268990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,11],"tags":[804,58548,58547,62329,60401,5209,4966,5210,3784,39,3782,3231,63797,63798,63796,13301],"class_list":["post-268987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-lifestyle","tag-california","tag-choice-in-aging","tag-debbie-toth","tag-department-of-health-care-services","tag-dhcs","tag-ems","tag-equity","tag-ethnic-media-services","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medi-cal","tag-medicaid","tag-michael-whalen","tag-pamela-riley","tag-the-bedford-center","tag-transformation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}