The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is the reporting
entity for funds received through the Mallinckrodt Bankruptcy,
pursuant to the California Mallinckrodt Statewide Abatement
Agreement. Funds from the Mallinckrodt Bankruptcy are distributed
directly to local governments from the National Opioid Abatement
Trust II Fund (NOAT II). DHCS will provide a training session on
the Mallinckrodt expenditure reporting form on Wednesday,
October 25, 2023, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
This week, the California Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) announced the release of the
Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) of approximately $1.7
million in disencumbered federal funds for the Emergency
Solutions Grant (ESG) program, for Homelessness Prevention
activities only. Awarded funds will range from $75,000-$200,000
per applicant.
The California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) will
host an informational webinar for stakeholders and interested
parties on
SB 326 and
AB 531 – the Governor’s Behavioral Health System Reform
Package – on Friday, September 22nd from
2pm-3pm, in collaboration with the California Department
of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and the California
Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet). The webinar will
summarize amendments to the bill package and will be recorded for
those who are not available and wish to view the webinar at a
later date. To participate in the webinar, please follow this
link.
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will host an
informational webinar on September 29 at 9:00 am
for entities that have been approved to receive Technical
Assistance (TA) resources through the Providing Access and
Transforming Health (PATH) TA Marketplace. The PATH TA
Marketplace initiative provides funding for counties, providers,
community-based organizations and others to obtain technical
assistance resources to establish infrastructure needed to
implement Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports under
CalAIM.
This week, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
announced a second batch of awards for the first round of the
Behavioral
Health Bridge Housing (BHBH) Program. The awards announced
this week total $119.5 million to 12 counties, bringing the
overall awards to date of the BHBH Program to $897.1 million of
the nearly $907 million available for the first round.
AMENDMENTS TO SB 326 DO NOT MEANINGFULLY ADDRESS COUNTY
CONCERNS
Amendments to SB 326 came into print yesterday, with an official
amendment date of today, September 5. The amendments do not
significantly address county concerns as outlined in our prior
communications and
most recent formal letter to the Legislature and
Administration.
The California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) Center
for Data Insights and Innovation (CDII) has released two amended
Policies and Procedures (P&Ps) for the Data Exchange
Framework’s (DxF) Data Sharing Agreement for public comment.
Public comment on these two amended P&Ps will be accepted
until Monday, September 18, 2023, at 8:00 a.m.
Homebase, a non-profit
technical assistance provider focused on building community
capacity to end homelessness and reduce poverty, is seeking
applicants to apply for their new action lab series: Bridging
Boundaries. As part of Homebase’s Criminal Legal System
Initiative, the Bridging Boundaries Action Lab is open to
pairs of leaders who work in homelessness response systems and
parole and probation agencies.
Earlier this week on August 22, the Assembly held a
joint informational hearing of the Assembly Health and
Housing and Community Development Committees to review and
discuss the Governor’s proposal to modernize the state’s
behavioral health system. While there was broad agreement that
reforms are needed, numerous members of the committees expressed
concern regarding the lack of additional ongoing, sustainable
funding to support the proposed reforms and asked questions about
the potential impacts to programs and services in their
communities.
The California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) is
currently recruiting members for three time-limited ad hoc
subgroups of the CARE Act Working Group. Findings and
recommendations from each subgroup will be shared with counties,
the Department of Health Care Services, and the Judicial Council,
as well as help shape the implementation of the CARE Act. The
three groups are:
Earlier this week late on Tuesday evening, the first set of
amendments to Governor Newsom’s legislative proposal,
SB 326 (Eggman), to modernize the state’s behavioral health
system, came into print. CSAC continues to review the significant
changes made to the initial proposal and assess their impacts on
counties.
This week, the California Department of Aging (CDA) launched the
first-ever statewide needs assessment for Californians aged 55
years and older. The
Community Assessment Survey for Older Adults (CASOA) is
designed to gather critical information to help develop programs,
services, and supports that are inclusive, supportive, and
responsive to evolving needs. CASCOA measure six focus areas:
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), in partnership
with the contracted Health Management Associates (HMA), has
opened up registration for a training session and open-forum
discussion on Psychiatric Advance Directives (PAD) in the CARE
Act.
The training webinar, which takes place on August 28 at
10:00 am, will discuss the importance of PADs as a
blueprint for person-centered care and innovative tools and
processes that that may activate and utilize the PAD in the CARE
process.
Earlier this week, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
published a new interactive Medi-Cal
dashboard detailing statewide and county-level demographic
data on Medi-Cal application processing, enrollments,
redeterminations, and renewal outcomes. In addition, DHCS has
created a dedicated
webpage with the files on this data.
