YoloCares credentialed to be an Enhanced Care Management Site

YoloCares credentialed to be an Enhanced Care Management Site

YoloCares has been credentialed to be an Enhanced Care Management Site by Partnership Health Plan of California, a nonprofit community-based health care organization that contracts with the state to administer Medi-Cal benefits through local care providers to ensure Medi-Cal recipients have access to high quality care.

Enhanced Care Management (ECM) is a new statewide Medi-Cal benefit available to eligible members with complex needs such as serious illness, housing insecurity, or recent institutionalization. ECM will connect beneficiaries with a single Care Manager who will coordinate their health-related care and services. Under this benefit, members will also receive connections to social services, community resources, and programs that will help facilitate healthier, more stable lifestyles.

As Medi-Cal looks towards a major transformation in the structure of benefits, ECM is the Golden State’s initiative to address a lack of palliative and supportive care services. Under the current Medi-Cal model, more than half of program spending is attributed to five percent of members with the highest-cost needs. ECM is designed to address beneficiaries’ healthcare needs before they become life-threatening, thus lowering members’ reliance on emergency medical services and high-cost treatments for health crisis.

“YoloCares is an ideal candidate for an ECM site as we have been a safety net to our community’s most vulnerable members for over 40 years,” says Craig Dresang, CEO. “Our clinical team is adept at responding to the complex and unique needs of our patients and their families, often going above and beyond the scope of hospice care to help our patients find comfort and dignity during their final days.”

Over the last five years, YoloCares has expanded clinical care and resources to support patients over the course of their end-of-life experience—not just during the final six months of life. YoloCares now offers Joint Commission accredited community-based palliative care, Galileo Place Adult Day Program, and the Center for Caregiver Support, all programs designed to meet patients and families wherever they are on their illness progression.

“As an agency that has been focused on serving the most vulnerable Californians within our communities, it is thrilling to have the opportunity to be re-imbursed for the services we have so graciously offered to our community free of charge,” adds Louise Joyce, director of community programs.

In the coming year, YoloCares will take over the operations of Joshua’s House, a hospice residence for terminally ill unhoused people, the first of its kind on the West Coast. “As YoloCares expands its support of our most vulnerable community members, the decision to become an ECM site was a natural evolution for the agency,” says Chris Erdman, Director of Joshua’s House. “We welcome the opportunity to be a part of the future of Medi-Cal.”