LeadingAge California supports the Governor’s Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI) goal to more seamlessly knit together comprehensive acute, long-term, mental and behavioral care services for persons eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal Services, the so-called: Dual Eligible.
The challenge of this task is sobering to the states involved in the federal demonstration as evidenced by all the demonstration states postponing CCI start dates into 2014. The difficult issues raised by the Coordinated Care Initiative deserve to be considered in the Legislature’s health policy committees where they can be fully vetted and better understood, rather than limited to the budget committees’ consideration of trailer bill language. Changes in public policy involving hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries must be fully considered by the committees having the background and experience to properly assess how such changes will affect Medi-Cal beneficiaries and providers. These concerns were reflected in a recent letter from the Los Angeles Congressional Delegation to CMS.
LeadingAge California urges the Legislature to create an independent CCI/LTSS Implementation Council to oversee the development and implementation of this important public policy initiative.
