Medi-Cal: community health worker services.

Assembly Member Ortega's proposal to enhance oversight of Medi-Cal's community health worker (CHW) services would establish annual reporting requirements to track the program's implementation and reach. The legislation mandates that the Department of Health Care Services conduct comprehensive analyses of CHW service delivery, with initial findings due by July 2027.

The required annual reports would examine multiple aspects of the CHW benefit, including utilization patterns, workforce distribution, and demographic data. Specifically, the department must assess outreach efforts by Medi-Cal managed care plans, document the types and frequency of services provided, and analyze referral patterns across provider categories. The reports would also track the number of CHWs by employer type, estimate workforce needs, and compile reimbursement data for CHW services.

To ensure meaningful analysis while protecting privacy, the legislation requires that demographic breakdowns - covering geographic region, race, ethnicity, language, and age - meet statistical significance thresholds. The reports must exclude personally identifiable information about beneficiaries. Once completed, the department must submit the analyses to the Legislature and publish them on its website, making the findings accessible to stakeholders and the public.