Medi-Cal Whole Person Care (WPC) Pilot Program (2016-2021)
The California Department of Health Care Services, which is responsible for administering the state’s Medicaid program, implemented the Medi-Cal Whole Person Care (WPC) Pilot Program as part of the state's Section 1115(a) Medicaid waiver demonstration. Under WPC, 25 Pilot programs representing the majority of counties in CA provided care coordination and other services to address identified medical, behavioral health, and social service needs of high-risk Medicaid beneficiaries, with the aim of improving their health outcomes and overall well-being. WPC Pilots enrolled ~248,000 eligible beneficiaries between January 2017 - December 2021. With support from the California Department of Health Care Services, researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Mack Center evaluated the impact of the WPC Pilot Program on service utilization, costs, and health outcomes for participating beneficiaries and found that relative to a matched comparison group, WPC enrollees had lower emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and costs of care (Pourat et al., 2022; Chuang et al., 2024). The evaluation also yielded insights into factors influencing the implementation and sustainability of these Pilots (Chuang et al., 2020; Chuang et al., 2025; Safaeinili et al., 2025).
Medi-Cal Health Homes Program (HHP; 2017-2021)
California's HHP provided care management and other services to address medical and non-medical needs of high-risk Medi-Cal enrollees. With support from Cal-IHEA, researchers at the UC Berkeley Mack Center and the Center for Healthcare Organizational Innovation Research conducted interviews with participating Medi-Cal managed care plans and a survey of their contracted community-based care management entity partners to characterize different approaches for managing the care of high-risk patients and highlight key lessons learned in implementation (Chuang et al., 2020).
Medi-Cal Providing Access and Transforming Health (PATH) and Community Supports (2022 - 2026)
Following WPC and HHP, the California Department of Health Care Services chose to sustain and expand services to provide case management or address Medi-Cal members’ health-related social needs using new Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports services, and through new 90-day pre-release services for incarcerated individuals under the Justice-Involved (JI) Re-entry initiative. PATH is designed to increase the capacity of providers to implement Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports services, and to increase capacity of correctional facilities and other organizations to implement new pre-release Medi-Cal application and suspension processes and deliver 90-day pre-release services and behavioral health linkages. Researchers at the UC Berkeley Mack Center are working closely with researchers at UCLA and RAND to evaluate the PATH and Community Supports initiatives, including impact on Medi-Cal members’ service utilization, costs of care, and health outcomes. Work on the evaluation began in 2024 and is scheduled to continue through 2029.