Braiding Medicaid Funds to Support Person Centered Care: Lessons from Medi-Cal
Center for Health Care Strategies
Better care where it's needed most
Braiding funding streams — when health care and social service organizations bring together funds from various sources to support a unified goal or program — is a promising strategy for maximizing financing to promote the delivery of services for people with complex health and social needs.
California’s CalAIM initiative is creating new opportunities for organizations to tap into Medi-Cal (Medicaid) funding to provide comprehensive, person-centered care and services. Yet, to do this effectively, social service organizations often need to braid multiple Medicaid and non-Medicaid funding streams — a relatively new concept for many service delivery organizations in California and across the country.
Based on interviews with health care and social service organizations in California, this brief explores how organizations are braiding funding, identifies strategies for managing related challenges and risks, and highlights opportunities for health care payers to make it easier for organizations to braid funds. The brief, made possible through support from the California Health Care Foundation, also profiles three organizations that are braiding funds to advance person-centered care for the populations they serve.