Happy New Year! 2022 has arrived, along with exciting new opportunities and challenges.
Here at RAMP, we’re especially enthusiastic about the January launch of a new Medi-Cal program that allows Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to use Medicaid funding to pay for home trigger remediation for people with poorly controlled asthma.
Medi-Cal’s Community Supports program provides the option for MCOs to provide certain services that aren’t covered by Medicaid in place of traditional health care interventions. Asthma Remediation is one of fourteen options.
A significant number of MCOs selected Asthma Remediation and will begin offering that service to eligible beneficiaries early this year – often by leaning on the network of existing asthma home visiting programs in California. It’s a tremendous opportunity to expand access to these important services. MCOs that have yet to select Asthma Remediation may do so later this year.
Other exciting developments are on the horizon: the Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, continues to work on a State Plan Amendment that will provide Medi-Cal funding for in-home asthma education and trigger assessments provided by non-licensed professionals like community health workers, promotoras, and other qualified individuals. DHCS hopes to have that benefit in place by mid-2022.
Together, the two policy changes will help provide comprehensive support for asthma home visiting services in California for the people who need them the most.
Warm regards,
RAMP staff
