The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is innovating and transforming the Medi-Cal delivery system. CalAIM is moving Medi-Cal towards a population health approach that prioritizes prevention and whole person care. Our goal is to extend supports and services beyond hospitals and health care settings directly into California communities.
Our vision is to meet people where they are in life, address social drivers of health, and break down the walls of health care. CalAIM will offer Medi-Cal enrollees coordinated and equitable access to services that address their physical, behavioral, developmental, dental, and long-term care needs, throughout their lives, from birth to a dignified end of life.
A Better Medi-Cal for Californians
CalAIM’s bold transformation aligns all elements of Medi-Cal into a system that is standardized, simplified, and focused on helping enrollees live healthier lives. Success requires the investment and sustained commitment of a broad network of health partners, including plans, providers, and community-based organizations, with incentives to achieve a high quality of service. When CalAIM is fully implemented, Medi-Cal will better serve and benefit enrollees because it will be a seamless and streamlined health care system.
CalAIM seeks to transform health care for Californians through:
A Catalyst for Equity and Justice
A better Medi-Cal is a key building block of California’s broader commitment to building a healthier and more equitable state.
Black and Latino Californians have long faced health disparities that are the result of longstanding, structural racism in the health care system, housing, and employment. The pandemic exacerbated these inequities and underscored the need for CalAIM’s investment in Community Supports, and home and community-based services, including interventions that address social drivers of health. These lessons learned are at the heart of the CalAIM system transformation.
Peer support specialists and community health workers will advance California’s effort to promote health equity by providing culturally competent services.
CalAIM will support crucial transitions, including the path from
homelessness to housing, from incarceration to community re-entry, and from institutional to home-based care. It will extend Medi-Cal services to people who are incarcerated before their release from county jails, state prisons, and youth correctional facilities, and who are disproportionately people of color.