Two Center publications outline plans to transition LIHP enrollees to Medi-Cal, Covered California

​Two new publications examine how nearly half a million Californians enrolled in county-operated Low Income Health Programs (LIHP) might be transitioned into health care reform coverage programs as part of the Affordable Care Act's implementation in 2014.

In the first policy note, Smooth Transitions into Medi-Cal: Ensuring Continuity of Coverage for Low Income Health Program Enrollees, researchers from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education examine the likely scenarios for more than 470,000 LIHP participants who will become eligible for a state-operated Medi-Cal expansion program.

The second policy note, Promoting Enrollment of Low Income Health Program Participants in Covered California, looks at plans to transition the remaining 27,000 LIHP participants into Covered California, the state health insurance exchange that will offer subsidies to low- and middle-income Californians eligible to purchase insurance.

In both scenarios, the authors say that collaboration between providers, consumer advocates, and other stakeholder groups is vital to a successful transition. Other recommendations include taking advantage of existing LIHP and DHCS data to ease the enrollment process in the exchange, developing and executing extensive outreach and communication plans, and conducting targeted outreach to populations in need of special assistance.

LIHP is a county-based program to shift low-income uninsured individuals from more costly episodic care to a more coordinated system of care, thereby improving access to care, quality of care, and overall health.