Sacramento & Solano Counties Push California For More Time & Resources To Safely Transition Their Specialty Mental Health Consumers From Kaiser To County-Administered Services

Sacramento and Solano counties in California are stalled in discussions with the state Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) over funding and delivery of specialty mental health services (SMHS) for Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) beneficiaries with severe mental illness (SMI). The dispute is over SMHS for a subset for beneficiaries with SMI who are enrolled in Kaiser Permanente’s Medi-Cal plan. For more than 10 years, DHCS has contracted directly with Kaiser Permanente to provide SMHS for these beneficiaries, and used state general funds to cover the costs. For Medi-Cal beneficiaries not enrolled in Kaiser, DHCS . . .