John Baackes to Discuss Partnerships with Community-Based Organizations to Address Members’ Social Needs
John Baackes, the CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, is among the nation’s top healthcare leaders participating tomorrow in the 2023 Social Determinants of Health Symposium, a daylong virtual event hosted by Modern Healthcare magazine. The leaders will explore policies, strategies and best practices for addressing systemic inequities in access to health care, economic opportunity, education, food and housing security, and other factors that impact the health of vulnerable communities. Baackes and Jim Mangia, the President and CEO of St. John’s Community Health, will be on a panel titled Managing a Growing List of Vendors to Address the Social Needs of Patients.
Healthcare organizations across the country have come to rely on outside vendors and community-based organizations to help address the social needs of their members. This is especially true in California. In 2022, the state launched CalAIM, a long-term commitment to transform Medi-Cal through a myriad of new programs and reforms to existing programs. The initiative requires significant collaboration between the health plans and community-based organizations.
Baackes will explain how L.A. Care and St. John’s are collaborating to implement one of the new programs – enhanced care management (ECM) for members with complex needs. The state requires that this service be provided by community-based organizations. Mangia will also talk about L.A. Care’s support for federally qualified health centers. He will explain how L.A. Care grants in support of St. John’s street medicine teams allow the health center to provide ECM for people experiencing homelessness.
Other panels at the symposium will focus on topics such as how technology is being used to address social determinants of health, the emerging role of health equity institutes, and how Congress is addressing health equity.