Through CalAIM, the California Department of Health Care Services has scaled Enhanced Care Management (ECM) from a small pilot benefit into a statewide intervention. The most recent DHCS quarterly implementation reports show roughly 290,000 Medi-Cal members actively engaged with ECM across all managed care plans — the population specifically targeted because they bounce between hospitals, specialists, and social service agencies without a single point of accountability.
ECM exists for the small share of members who account for an outsized share of avoidable cost: individuals with multiple chronic conditions, recent inpatient or skilled nursing facility stays, severe mental illness, substance use disorder, justice-involvement, or housing instability. DHCS designed ECM as the connective tissue across all of those domains, with a single Lead Care Manager assigned to each member.
At Pacific Health Group we operate inside that statewide framework — contracted with the major Medi-Cal managed care plans across our service area to deliver ECM to the populations of focus DHCS has defined.