Dear Friends and Allies,

California is at a historic intersection of unprecedented new resources for children’s mental and behavioral health, and an opportunity to insist on equity in who receives, delivers, and is paid for children’s mental health services.

On June 1st, the state released its draft Request for Proposal (RFP) which we hoped would clearly outline what is expected of Medi-Cal Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), including how they would be held accountable to provide required services to children insured by Medi-Cal, 96% of whom get care delivered through an MCO. We are still unbundling the content to see if the extensive feedback submitted by CCT, our partners, and youth advocate leaders is reflected in the RFP.  We will continue to collaborate with partners to seek answers where MCO requirements are either missing or are unclear.

Public input to the RFP is due on July 1st. We invite you to read the attached  Care Coordination Issue Brief, co-authored by CCT and The Children’s Partnership. It offers suggestions on strengthening MCO contract language and accountability to ensure California’s most vulnerable children are supported in navigating complex systems and multiple providers to receive the mental and behavioral health services they need.

Read the Brief

With the MCO re-procurement process, the first since the shift to managed care over 15 years ago, the state is positioning MCOs as essential to mending the fragmented and inequitable safety net responsible for delivering mental and behavioral health services to the 5 million children insured by Medi-Cal—the majority of whom are children of color. The lift for MCOs will be significant—moving from a narrow traditional medical model to a broad coordinated one. Done right, this reform will be informed by social determinants of health, and will shift power and dollars to historically underserved children who currently represent 40% of enrollees but only 14% of expenditures.

To transform the systems responsible for children’s social and emotional wellbeing we must hold MCOs accountable for fully serving our most vulnerable children, and require that they invest in culturally relevant Care Coordination and Case Management across all child-serving systems including schools, federally qualified healthcare centers, and other non-traditional care providers.

Advocate for MCO Accountability

Join the DHCS Webinar - June 10 at 2 pm to advocate for the MCO Accountability Checklist

• Require more spending on children who currently represent 42% of enrollees but only 14% of expenditures
• Require contracting with culturally relevant community-based organizations
• Ensure care coordination beyond medically fragile children
• Engage in scaling mental health supports in schools
• Increase availability of services (network adequacy measures) based on real-world beneficiary experience

More Resources to Inform Your Advocacy

Webinar Recording: A conversation and Q&A with Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services, and UCSF: Charting a New Course for Children, Youth & Young Adult Behavioral Health in California.

Webinar Recording: Health and Human Services Budget Hearing and Q&A.

Medi-Cal Managed Care Primer is CCT’s overview of California’s Medi-Cal Managed Care Program and Models.


Children Now - Accountability for Medi-Cal Children’s Preventive Services: Medi-Cal Health Plans are Key to the Preventive Care Guarantee for Kids uses the state’s data to rank Medi-Cal managed care health plans on their 2019 performance in providing preventive care for children.