California Endowment Provides $23M for Medi-Cal Enrollment Efforts
The California Endowment has provided $23 million in grants to be awarded to 36 counties or county groups across the state for efforts to enhance outreach and increase enrollment in Medi-Cal, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program (Seipel, San Jose Mercury News, 1/28).
The funding will be distributed by the California Department of Health Care Services.
Details of Grants
The funding was provided under a state law (AB 82) that allows DHCS to accept donations from private groups for Medi-Cal outreach and enrollment.
The grants range from $100,000 to more than $7 million and can be applied to activities taking place from Feb. 1 of this year until June 30, 2016 (DHCS release, 1/28).
Grantees must use the funding to focus on outreach to specific populations within the state, such as:
- Families with mixed-immigration status;
- Homeless individuals;
- Individuals with limited English proficiency;
- Individuals with mental illnesses or substance misuse issues;
- Young male minorities (San Jose Mercury News, 1/28); and
- Individuals who are incarcerated or former inmates who are under post-release community supervision.
The largest grants were awarded to:
- Los Angeles County, which is receiving more than $7 million;
- San Diego County, which is receiving about $1.8 million;
- Orange County, which is receiving about $1.6 million;
- Riverside County, which is receiving about $1.4 million; and
- San Bernardino County, which is receiving about $1.3 million.
Comments
Robert Ross, president and CEO of the California Endowment, said the group is "excited to partner with DHCS to fund outreach and enrollment assistance at the local level," adding, "This is an important investment that will help hundreds of thousands of Californians enroll in Medi-Cal."
DHCS Director Toby Douglas said the funding is important to ensure the state can "continue working with counties to make sure our messages about Medi-Cal coverage are reaching everyone with good information they can easily and readily use" (DHCS release, 1/28).
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