The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) implemented the Medi-Cal Health Homes Program (HHP) to serve eligible Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan (MCP) beneficiaries with complex needs, including individuals with chronic conditions and high levels of service utilization. HHP was authorized under California Assembly Bill 361 and approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Section 2703 of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. HHP is operated in 12 California counties by 16 MCPs that contract with Community-Based Care Management Entities (CB-CMEs) or directly deliver services to HHP enrollees. A UCLA Center for Health Policy Research team, led by Center Associate Director Nadereh Pourat, has been selected to evaluate the program. The evaluation efforts are supported by the generous contribution of The California Endowment.

This HHP Interim Evaluation report describes the initial implementation processes and infrastructure development of the HHP program by MCPs and the subsequent enrollment patterns, demographics, and services HHP enrollees received. The report also includes health status and utilization prior to HHP enrollment and early trends in health care utilization and care outcomes. Preliminary findings indicate that MCPs had developed comprehensive plans for program implementation and enrolled over 15,000 high-need, high-use Medi-Cal beneficiaries between July 2018 and September 2019. Two future reports will assess longer-term health outcomes and utilization trends of HHP enrollees.