​In 2016, California launched the Whole Person Care (WPC) program, a pilot project designed to integrate medical, mental health, and social services for Medi-Cal patients who frequently accessed health services, incurred disproportionately high costs, and had poor health outcomes.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research’s Health Economics and Evaluation Research Program, led by Nadereh Pourat, PhD, was chosen to conduct the statewide evaluation of the WPC pilot program, which ended in 2021.

On Wednesday, February 8, Pourat will present selected findings from the final evaluation of WPC, particularly changes to health service utilization of enrollees and associated costs. The evaluation findings described a major and expansive effort in California to address the needs of the most vulnerable Medi-Cal beneficiaries who were high utilizers of services.

The presentation will outline program achievements, as well as challenges faced by the 25 participating Pilots.

Susan Philip, MPH, deputy director of Health Care Delivery Systems for the California Department of Health Care Services, will discuss the relevance of the findings for the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) and share next steps in caring for high-need, high-cost Medicaid beneficiaries.