California Medicaid Opens Public Comment Period For CalAIM Waiver

On April 6, 2021, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) began accepting public comment on its draft California Advancing & Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration application and Section 1915(b) waiver. The CalAIM provisions are intended to standardize Medicaid managed care plan benefits, add institutional care and major organ transplants into managed care, and carve pharmacy out of managed care. Through CalAIM, the state also intends to implement Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) statewide, which will replace the state’s current 1915(b) Medicaid waiver plans, which have capped enrollment and . . .