Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program which provides free or low-cost health care to people who qualify.
San Diego County leaders are hosting community events to showcase new healthcare services.
Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports are two new services tailored for Medi-Cal members with specific needs.
Community Supports are short-term services like healthy meals, home care services for a safer home, and aid for housing search along with first month utilities for Medi-Cal members who meet eligibility requirements.
Enhanced Care Management services include a care manager to work with a patient’s health care team to coordinate services, assist with doctor’s appointments along with explaining medication and insurance benefits.
“It’s food, it’s healthy nutrition for people with chronic disease, it’s housing, it’s support for people who have asthma who may have triggers or causes of their asthma due to their environment,” Dr. Jennifer Tuteur said. “Social drivers of health actually help people be healthy and live longer even more than the care we might do in a clinic setting or hospital.”
San Diego County elected leaders are stressing the importance of the program.
“There’s over a million people already enrolled in Medi-Cal in this county and 144,000 of them alone in my district,” San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said.
As the country faces a potential government shutdown on Oct. 1, Supervisor Aguirre said the county will navigate the challenges that arise.
“At the County we provide those services through the county, so we are going to continue providing those services if and when the government shuts down. Everything that we needed to receive is already in-house,” Aguirre said.
There will be more community events where the public can learn more about the new Medi-Cal services.