SB 324

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions.

Existing law, subject to implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, requires the department to implement an enhanced care management (ECM) benefit designed to address the clinical and nonclinical needs on a whole-person-care basis for certain target populations of Medi-Cal beneficiaries enrolled in Medi-Cal managed care plans. Under existing law, target populations include, among others, high utilizers with frequent hospital admissions, short-term skilled nursing facility stays, or emergency room visits, and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Existing law, subject to CalAIM implementation, authorizes a Medi-Cal managed care plan to elect to cover community supports, as specified. Under existing law, community supports that the department is authorized to approve include, among others, housing transition navigation services and medically supportive food and nutrition services.

This bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan, for purposes of covering the ECM benefit, or if it elects to cover a community support, to contract with community providers, as defined, that can demonstrate that they are capable of providing access and meeting quality requirements in accordance with Medi-Cal guidelines. In determining which community providers to contract with, the bill would authorize Medi-Cal managed care plans to take into consideration whether those providers are available in the respective county and have experience in providing the applicable ECM or community support. The bill would require the department, for purposes of enforcing these provisions, to require Medi-Cal managed care plans to set goals every other year for the level of contracting and utilization of community providers and local entities, as defined. The bill would require these goals to be established in consultation with the department, as specified.

If a community provider contracted to provide ECM services or community supports submits a referral or authorization request for the applicable service on behalf of an eligible member, the bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to assign the member to the contracted referring provider if the plan determines that the provider can appropriately meet the needs of the member.

The bill would prohibit the above-described provisions from being construed to limit the department's authority to grant eligibility for presumptive authorization for categories of ECM providers that have extensive experience and expertise in serving certain ECM populations of focus.

Existing law requires the department to develop, in consultation with Medi-Cal managed care plans and other appropriate stakeholders, a monitoring plan and reporting template for the implementation of ECM or community supports. Existing law requires the department to annually publish a public report on reported ECM or community support utilization data, populations served, and demographic data, stratified by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and languages spoken, to the extent that statistically reliant data are available.

This bill would expressly include providers of ECM or community supports within the consultation process. The bill would require the department to publish the public report on a quarterly basis instead and would require additional demographic data.

The bill would also require the department to develop standardized and streamlined templates to be used by Medi-Cal managed care plans or their contracted providers, as specified, and to develop guidance to allow community providers to act as a primary subcontractor with Medi-Cal managed care plans and to subcontract with other community providers as a 3rd-tier subcontractor, as specified.