California is embarking on a five-year initiative to see if it can curb its Medicaid costs by having managed care insurers deliver social services, Kaiser Health News reported June 1.
The goal of the program, called CalAIM, is to keep people out of expensive healthcare institutions by helping them find housing, removing toxic mold from homes and delivering medically tailored meals, according to the report.
The program is unconventional because it is being carried out by health plans rather than county social service departments, according to the report. CalAIM is expected to cost $8.7 billion and is only expected to cover a small portion of the state's Medicaid population. The cost of the state's Medicaid program rose to $124 billion this year, nearly triple its price a decade ago.
California is still developing a way to track health outcomes, meaning it is unknown whether the program will save money, according to the report.
The California Department of Health Care Services, which runs the state's Medicaid program, told Kaiser Health News it hopes patients who get the meals will visit hospitals and emergency rooms less frequently. The goal is to make people healthier by helping them adopt better eating habits and teaching them how to sustain a good diet.
Read the full report here.