Los Angeles Briefs: Motion Enhances Access to Justice for Justice-Involved Residents; Hahn Addresses County Homelessness Proposal

Supervisors Motion Expands Access to Justice-Involved Residents By Empowering Community Groups

LOS ANGELES —The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Nov. 26 approved a motion authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis and Chair Lindsay P. Horvath to expand access to justice-involved residents by empowering community-based organizations to draw down Medi-Cal dollars. It further reinforces the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department’s or JCOD ability to provide essential case management and diversion programming.

JCOD’s reentry intensive care management services or RICMS, employs community health workers through contracted community-based organization providers across the county, to provide wraparound care coordination and support to vulnerable justice-impacted individuals. Currently, these providers are smaller organizations that are unable to meet the administrative requirements to become a managed care plan-contracted or MCP Medi-Cal provider without further assistance. This motion will allow JCOD to act as the administrative intermediatory between these smaller service provider organizations and MCPs and will allow the county to draw down Medi-Cal dollars to support justice-involved residents.

In 2021, the California Department of Health Care Services obtained approval from federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or CMS to add enhanced care management to its California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal or CalAIM proposal. ECM, which promotes care coordination with an interdisciplinary, holistic approach, allows for recipients to receive intensive care management to ensure that both their traditional health needs as well as their social determinants of health needs are addressed. These benefits are administered by the Medi-Cal managed care plans or MCPs in LA County.

The approved motion directs JCOD, in coordination with other offices, to develop the infrastructure to provide Medi-Cal post release ECM services, for smaller organizations contracted through the county to deliver ECM services to justice-impacted individuals. 

Details: Read the full motion here.

Hahn issues Statement on Proposal to Establish County Homelessness Department

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn Nov. 26 issued the following statement on a proposal by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Supervisor Kathryn Barger to shift some responsibilities away from LAHSA and establish a County Department dedicated to homeless service delivery:

“Voters have not given up on solving our homelessness crisis. By supporting Measure A, they proved they not only believe solutions exist, but they are also willing to spend their own money investing in those solutions. We owe these voters and every person suffering on the streets results.

I am open to the idea of creating a new county department if it will actually mean bringing people inside faster and more effectively addressing this humanitarian crisis. What I am not interested in is replacing one bureaucracy with another or rolling back the progress we have made linking arms with the City of Los Angeles. 

I will continue to dig into the practical realities of what this proposal would mean for homeless service providers and the tens of thousands of people who depend on them and I look forward to seeing the report back we requested today.”