California Medicaid Announces New Direct Contract With Kaiser Permanente

On February 4, 2022, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced that it planned to enter into a direct contract with Kaiser Permanente as a Medi-Cal managed care plan within new geographic regions of the state. Kaiser Permanente currently participates in Medi-Cal managed care in 22 counties, and in 10 more counties Kaiser has another line of business. The new contract extends the Kaiser Permanente Medicaid coverage to these 32 counties.

Kaiser Permanente currently serves 900,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries as a managed care plan subcontractor in 17 counties. It has two direct Geographic Managed care . . .