Whole Person Care/Care Connect Transitions

Alameda County Care Connect, the Whole Person Care Medi-Cal waiver pilot launched in 2016 and ended on December 31, 2021. Over the course of six years, Care Connect wove together new and existing services to attain a new level of care integration for residents who rely on the safety net. In all, over 30,000 Alameda County residents received new or improved services, including housing problem-solving and support, care coordination (enhanced by electronic data exchange), substance use disorder treatment, mental health services, and more.  

Care Connect implemented and expanded systemwide initiatives that have positively impacted countless providers and residents in our community including:  

• Launched and expanded the Community Health Record (CHR) and Social Health Information Exchange (SHIE). 
• Developed the Consumer Fellowship pipeline program and trained people with lived experience to provide outreach, engagement, education, and expertise with consumers. 
• Expanded PATH (Promoting Access to Health) clinics, launched Crisis Connect, and the Community Assessment and Transport Teams (CATT) with the Alameda County Behavioral Health (ACBH) department. 
• Coordinated rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic by launching and growing Operation Comfort and Safer Ground, providing safe shelter at 10 hotel sites for over 5,000 households with the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination, and protecting people in shelters and on the streets with the Health Care for the Homeless program. 
• Launched the Care Connect Academy and delivered cross-sector training to expand capacity within the provider community to support services access for clients across the system. 
• Provided intensive quality improvement and workflow design support to enable front-line staff to implement new processes to provide more integrated care. 
• Built a strong foundation for complex care coordination through successful implementation of the Health Homes/Complex Care Management program in collaboration with Alameda Alliance for Health and Anthem Blue Cross and the development of Health, Housing, and Integrated Services bundles in partnership with local cities, community-based organizations, and the AC Housing Solutions for Health team. These services are continuing, with funding through Medi-Cal’s CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal) initiative, beginning January 2022. 

Now, with the on-going leadership of the Health Care Services Agency, we will focus on expanding the SHIE/CHR system to serve low-income County residents in an integrated way while supporting the success of CalAIM over the next year and a half. We will also continue working with our partners to reduce system fragmentation and increase capacity to deliver coordinated care that makes a difference to consumers’ quality of life.