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What Plans Need to Know About DHCS Latest Release of Guiding Principles

In March 2022, DHCS released key guiding principles and considerations Medi-Cal plans will need to consider when designing programs for their Medicaid members, specifically youth and families. With 1 in 3 Californians insured under Medi-Cal, and over 13 million members at stake, these principles will become key focus areas for plans in 2023 and beyond.

The Challenge

To set the stage, in 2019–20, Medi-Cal brought in more than $65 billion in federal funds and accounted for nearly 16% of all state general fund spending. People with disabilities comprise 9% of Medi-Cal enrollees, and account for 31% of total spending. Children account for 17% of enrollees, but only 6% of the total spend.

And quality measures haven’t seen much improvement, with more than half of the measures staying the same or declining from 2009 to 2018. In summary, quality of care has declined on four measures, and hasn’t improved on 12 measures. What’s worse, three of the four measures that did decline were related to the care of children covered under Medi-Cal. Six of the nine measures related to children declined or stayed the same, with only three measures seeing improvement. The decline in quality prompted state-wide action, which led to DHCS creating 8 guiding principles to improve health outcomes at scale.

This article will look at three of the eight principles and provide plans with insights and opportunities to apply DHCS strategy in supporting families and children covered by Medi-Cal while enhancing health outcomes for the nation’s most vulnerable population.

Want to read about all 8 of the Guiding Principles and recommendations for implementing each one? Download our Medi-Cal Brief »

Strengthen the Coverage Base for California’s Children

  • Premiums will be reduced to zero to ensure accessibility for all Medi-Cal families.
  • Presumptive eligibility will expand to ensure families and children in need can receive care more quickly.

Opportunity

California has ensured a simplified enrollment and eligibility process for Medi-Cal, which has enabled the state to rank among the top third in the county in its child health coverage rates. California reduced the uninsured rate for Latino children to less than half the national average. Unfortunately, progress has declined in recent years, and the uninsured rate is beginning to gradually increase. With zero-dollar premiums and presumptive eligibility, plans will need to onboard and educate members about their benefits faster.

mPulse Improves Member Knowledge of Plan Benefits by 91%

Strategy: Deploy 2-way text messaging to gauge new members’ understanding of plan benefits and available resources, educate and improve utilization of plan benefits.

By using demographic datasets from our SDoH Index, we assessed and segmented the target population. Interactive polls, on-demand resources and open-ended questions were sent to members to continually gather insights while pointing them toward tailored resources.

Outcome: 91% of members found the text messages helped improve their understanding of the plan’s benefits and services. The number of members who reported they would visit the ER for a minor condition dropped from 11% to 4%. The engagement score, based on response and sentiment, was 2.5 times higher than the control group.

Fortify the Pediatric Preventive and Primary Care Foundation

  • A new population health management (PHM) strategy will be implemented to establish a checklist for plans to identify and serve children in need of care coordination.
  • New resources will be implemented in practice transformation for pediatric providers and primary care providers serving pregnant and youth members.
  • An educational outreach campaign will be deployed for EPSDT for members, providers, and MCPs.
  • Improve criteria and procedures used to determine when children receive behavioral health services, specialty mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment.
  • Expansion of preventive pediatric dental benefits.
  • Participate in CMS infant well-child visits learning collaborative for health care payment learning and action network state transformation collaborative (STC).
  • Continued support for the ACEs Aware Initiative and provider training grants.

Opportunity

Early Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) is the foundation for necessary adolescent care. Contract requirements in the upcoming Medi-Cal MCP procurement will create greater visibility and enforcement of EPSDT services under DHCS. Ensuring members receive education and information on the importance of these services is essential in building member self-efficacy.

mPulse Drives 66% Well-Child Visit Attendance

Strategy: Better manage children’s health outcomes by driving awareness of well-child visits, immunizations, and primary care visits via 2-way text messages.

Outcome: 66% of members attended at least one well-care visit. 83% of targeted members had their child vaccinated. 29% of members aged 18-21 successfully transitioned from a pediatrician to a primary care provider.

Get more outcomes and guiding principle recommendations by downloading the complete content »

Strengthen Access to Pediatric Vaccinations

  • Deploy COVID-19 pediatric vaccines to meet California’s “Vaccinate All 58” goals.
  • Develop a Vaccines for Children (VFC) plan with CDPH to increase vaccinations and increase vaccine education.
  • Increase vaccination rate of pregnant Medi-Cal members.

Opportunity

The United States saw a country-wide decline in vaccination rates throughout the pandemic with a 40% reduction in childhood vaccination rates in April 2020. California saw a vaccination rate of 35% in children for 2020. To prioritize increasing the Medi-Cal vaccination rate, more work will be required by plans in developing programs and initiatives that support vaccine education and helping overcome vaccine hesitancy.

mPulse Uses Streaming Health Education to Increase Vaccine Readiness

Strategy: Build self-efficacy and increase vaccine readiness by providing visual storybooks and using behavioral science techniques to help overcome barriers and vaccine hesitancy. 2.6 million messages were sent, and 1.8 million dialogues were initiated in both English and Spanish translation.

Outcome: 18.9% of members replied to a message or clicked a link. 72% of members who interacted with our vaccine storybook were more likely to get vaccinated.

Why Plans Should Leverage Text Messaging Outreach

In 2019, more than 94% of California households had internet access, although significant gaps remain with families of color and lower incomes having less access than white households. With organizations like iFoster, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), and California LifeLine working to provide internet access and cell phones to those who need it most, cell phone and internet access will only continue to increase.

Compliance Considerations

When it comes to healthcare, communicating with members through text messaging can be somewhat daunting. mPulse Mobile is HITRIST, HIPAA, and TCPA-compliant and has deployed programs with leading Medi-Cal plans while ensuring compliance and member privacy is top of mind.

The TCPA healthcare exemption enables health organizations to deliver messages without prior express consent, as long as they abide by the following rules:

  • Must be HIPAA compliant, and not promotional or soliciting.
  • Messages can only be sent to the phone number provides and must state the name and contact information of the sender.
  • Voice messages must be under 1 minute, and text massages less than 160 characters.
  • Messaging frequency needs to be less than once per day, and no more than three times per week.
  • Messages must offer an opt-out and opt-outs must be honored accordingly.

As a company 100% focused on health engagement, security and compliance are mPulse Mobile’s highest priority, and all our solutions are designed with compliance as the foundation.

Conclusion

To improve quality measures and enhance outcomes for Medi-Cal youth and families, DHCS will be enforcing these policies and principles alongside Medi-Cal plans to increase utilization of new resources and services. mPulse Mobile’s suite of solutions are designed to drive engagement and increase utilization of plan benefits. Our frictionless engagement methods are proven to empower health literacy and self-efficacy. By partnering with us, plans can proactively implement DHCS principles into their enterprise strategy to deliver outcomes that matter most: healthier communities and greater quality of care for California’s most vulnerable members.

7 Ways to Use Streaming Content in Your Health Communication, Part 2

In part 1 of this blog series, we looked at the power of Fotonovelas, Interactive Content, and Animations to drive action in health consumers. All this content does the same thing: it goes beyond just telling a member or patient that taking an action is important. It teaches someone why it’s important and what can be gained or lost by action or inaction.

There are more types of content that can be used to solve some pervasive health challenges, though. In this post, we’ll tackle four of the top performing content types that can be used to do this: Courses, Expert Led Lessons, Stories, and Self-Assessments.

Courses to Manage Anxiety and Depression

The World Health Organization estimates lost production as the result of anxiety and depression costs the global economy over $1 trillion every year.  And, of course, it isn’t just a productivity issue. Mood disorders make it harder for people to stick with treatment plans, manage chronic conditions, and keep doctor appointments, which can have an overall impact on health and cost of healthcare treatment in the long term.

This makes it an important topic for plans and providers to discuss with their health consumers. Our 5-part course, Living with Anxiety and Depression, taught by author and mindfulness guru, Elisha Goldstein, PhD, teaches self-care strategies for navigating the negativity loop that can serve to keep many of us stuck in negative patterns and behaviors making it a truly powerful learning experience. Healthcare organizations can license the content to provide it any number of ways, including in their own branded content portal.

And anxiety doesn’t just affect adults. According to the CDC, approximately one out of every 10 kids (ages 3-17) have a confirmed anxiety diagnosis. The Parenting Kids with Anxiety course led taught by child psychologist and author, Renee Jain, contains five lessons focused on helping parents help their children transform their feelings of anxiety so they can all find calm, courage, and resilience.

Expert Led Lessons to Empower Consumers

Patients can often feel powerless when they engage in the healthcare system. They leave appointments confused. They have care plans they don’t want or know how to follow. They might not know how to advocate for themselves.

To address this and help them take charge of their care, healthcare organizations can provide expert-led video lessons from trusted experts to educate their members and patients on how to take control of their health. For example, Preparing for a Diagnostic Conversation features Dr. Archelle Georgiou who teaches members how to ensure every health decision is their decision, they leave every interaction feeling heard, and that the decisions made reflect their values and priorities.

These lessons can be embedded online, delivered via SMS messaging, or available on a streaming platform. Giving access to content led by reputable and trusted professionals is the first step to ensuring your members and patients take ownership of their healthcare.

Interactive Stories Encourage Diabetes Eye Exams

Started by Snapchat and copied by Facebook and Instagram, stories are now everywhere. Optimized for mobile delivery, they are auto-advancing snips of videos and images which healthcare plans and providers can take and use on social media as another channel to communicate with their populations or repurpose them for SMS delivered solutions. Our diabetes eye exam story below was promoted to at risk populations and is a great example of how the use of stories can educate.

A quick eye exam can detect early signs of diabetes or pre-diabetes. Because of that, getting members to their eye doctor every year is a priority. To help members really understand why doing so matters to them, we could simply send a text or an email telling them it’s that time, and that might work.

We want to help members really connect to the reality of life with eye disease, though, so to take it a step further and ensure the member or patient really understands the reason behind these exams, you can embedd this video you’re your communication program, and it includes a powerful, easy to follow call-to-action.

Self-Assessment to Determine a Need for Preventive Care Screenings

Increasing regular health screenings is an important goal for every health plan. We have an entire library of assets to help members understand when, why, and how to get the most common health screenings (like mammograms, colonoscopies, eye exams, and more).

Below is an example of a simple interactive self-assessment we provide to help members identify which health screenings are most appropriate for them based on what they tell us. Plans may already know what screenings the member is due for, but by providing this activity, it helps the member connect how their personal characteristics connect to their screening recommendations. Once the member receives their recommendations, we then connect them to additional content to help them better understand how the screening works and what their options may be.

The Bottom Line

Health content in the past has largely been underwhelming where pamphlets, brochures, and information documents were the norm. In today’s environment of social media, streaming content, and digital-first experiences, that won’t work. Healthcare organizations have a wide-open world of rich media experiences they can take and adapt for health education, and it’s imperative they do so! Consumers are not impressed with static (and oftentimes boring) content when the rest of their life is starkly different from that.

These are the top 7 content experiences we’ve seen work, but there are more than just these at healthcare’s disposal. Reach out to us to see what else is available for health outreach!