Medi-Cal

The California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal or MediCal) is the name of the California Medicaid welfare program serving low-income individuals, including but not limited to: families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and childless adults with incomes below 138% of federal poverty level. It is jointly administered by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with many services implemented at the local level by the counties of California. Approximately 12.5 million people were enrolled in Medi-Cal as of May 2015, or about 32.4% of California's population.

Eligibility

Medi-Cal provides health coverage for people with low income and limited ability to pay for health coverage, including the aged, blind, disabled, young adults and children, pregnant women, persons in a skilled nursing or intermediate care home, and persons in the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program (BCCTP). People receiving federally funded cash assistance programs, such as CalWORKs (a state implementation of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program), the State Supplementation Program (SSP) (a state supplement to the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program), foster care, adoption assistance, certain refugee assistance programs, or In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) are also eligible.

Beginning in 2014 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), those with family incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level became eligible for Medi-Cal (pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(10)(A)(i)(VIII)), and individuals with higher incomes and some small businesses may choose a plan in Covered California, California's health insurance marketplace, with potential federal subsidies.

Benefits

Medi-Cal health benefits include ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, dental, vision, and long term care and supports.

Many of these benefits for most beneficiaries are contracted out to Medi-Cal Managed Care organizations. Dental benefits and mental health benefits for the seriously and persistently mentally ill are universally excluded from Medi-Cal Managed Care contracts. California has several models of Medi-Cal Managed Care which are designated at the county level: County Organized Health System (COHS) model with one health plan per county, "Two Plan Model" with one community health plan and one commercial health plan in the county, Geographic Managed Care model with multiple plans per county, Regional Managed Care model, with 1-2 commercial health plans in many counties, and two unique one-county models in San Benito and Imperial counties. As of July, 2015, 9.7 million Medi-Cal enrollees were enrolled in a Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan, representing about 78% of all enrollees.

Administration

Medi-Cal is jointly administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), while the county welfare department in each of the 58 counties is responsible for local administration of the Medi-Cal program. C4Yourself and CalWIN are statewide online application systems that allows you to apply for benefits.

Law

Federal law mostly consists of the Social Security Amendments of 1965 which added Title XIX to the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1396 et seq.), and state law mostly consists of California Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) Division 9, Part 3, Chapter 7 (WIC § 14000 et seq.). Federal regulations are mostly found in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 42, Chapter IV, Subchapter C (42 C.F.R. 430 et seq.) and state regulations are contained in California Code of Regulations (CCR) Title 22, Division 3 (22 CCR § 50005). C4Yourself is a program of the California Statewide Automated Welfare System (SAWS) Consortium IV Joint Powers Authority.

Costs

Medi-Cal costs are estimated at $73.9 billion ($16.9 billion in state funds) in 2014-15. For comparison, the entire California state budget in 2014-2015 is $156 billion, of which about $108 billion was general funds (not allocated for special expenditures, such as bonds).

Related programs

Medi-Cal with the assistance from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation created The California Partnership for Long-Term Care. The goal is to protect Californians from being forced to spend everything they have worked for on long-term care, and to prevent or delay dependence on Medi-Cal.

Covered California

Main article: Covered California

Covered California is the health insurance marketplace in California, the state's implementation of the American Health Benefit Exchange provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Indigent health programs

Further information: Welfare in California § Indigent programs

Since 1933, California law has required counties to provide relief to the poor, including health care services and general assistance. County indigent medical programs can be categorized as California Medical Service Program (CMSP) and Medically Indigent Service Program (MISP) counties. There are 34 CMSP counties and 24 MISP counties. The CMSP county programs are largely managed by the state, whereas MISP counties manage their own programs with their own rules and regulations. Many patients from both the CMSP and MISP county programs transitioned to Medi-Cal when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014.

See also

• Welfare in California

External links

• Apply (C4Yourself)
• Official website
• California Medical Assistance Program in the California Code of Regulations
• Medicaid State Plan information for California
• State Waivers for Medicaid program in California