The Health Plan Outlined Its Efforts to Help Unhoused Members
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and California Black Media, an organization that advocates for Black-owned-and-operated news outlets across the state, hosted a Medi-Cal Transformation Lunch & Learn this week. They invited community business organizations and others to learn how Medi-Cal now provides more than clinical healthcare services, expanding to cover a wide variety of social needs, like food, housing, and personal care. During the roundtable discussion, L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest health plan in Los Angeles County, shared that it is on track to spend $1.2 billion through 2029 to support its unhoused members.
Sameer Amin, MD, L.A. Care’s Chief Medical Officer, explained that the health plan has provided housing services to nearly 20,000 members since 2002. This included:
• Housing Navigation – Services to help members find housing
• Housing Deposits – Support on move-in costs
• Tenancy Sustaining Services – Ongoing services to support stable tenancy
Amin also detailed the health plans commitment to street medicine teams that provide urgent care to members who remain unhoused.
The other two leading health plans in Los Angeles County, Health Net and Kaiser Permanente, also joined the roundtable discussion.