California’s Health Care Safety Net: Essential Access for Millions presents data on the providers and programs that compose California’s safety-net system.

FQHCs are as diverse as they are widespread and are integral to the state’s safety-net provider landscape. This report, part of the California Health Care Foundation’s Regional Markets Study series, examines the changing FQHC landscape, focusing on emerging trends and regional differences in FQHCs across the state.

The California Health Care Foundation commissioned the Blue Sky Consulting Group to undertake seven studies of large and diverse regional health care markets in California. The studies of Humboldt/Del Norte, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Joaquin Valley provide details of local health care systems and identify common themes and emerging issues that influence how Californians receive their health care. 

Blue Sky Consulting Group researched and wrote this for the California HealthCare Foundation. Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, is the state’s health insurance program for low-income Californians, including 40% of all children, half of all people with disabilities, over a million seniors, and nearly 4 million adults. It also pays for more than 50% of all births in the state and 58% of all patient days in long-term care facilities. In total, 13 million, or one in three, Californians rely on the program for health coverage. Medi-Cal pays for essential primary, specialty, acute, behavioral health, and long-term care services.

This paper, commissioned by the Blue Shield of California Foundation, describes some of the current challenges facing California’s system of mental health services, explores strategies for improving mental health integration, and proposes scenarios for changing aspects of law, policy and organizational practices that could promote improved integration.

Accountable Communities for Health (ACHs) are place-based initiatives in which community, clinical, and policy strategies are coordinated with the aim of improving health outcomes and controlling health care costs. The multi-sector nature of ACHs combines strategies addressing specific chronic diseases or other health conditions in a mutually reinforcing way. The framework provides a methodology or “road map” for communities, funders, or government agencies interested in conducting an evaluation of local ACH initiatives or understanding and interpreting the results of such an evaluation.

The California HealthCare Foundation published our research highlighting the obstacles and opportunities facing California's Rural Health Clinics. This report provides a rare glimpse into an integral health care resource for rural Californians by analyzing administrative data and responses to our project-specific survey.

The use of information and communication technologies to deliver health care remotely, referred to as telehealth, has been reimbursable under California law since 1996. However, telehealth technologies and applications have advanced over the last decade and a half, leaving the current reimbursement laws outdated. The recent passage of Assembly Bill 415 will serve to modernize reimbursement law, and to help clear the path for the increased use of telehealth in California. Our analysis identified the potential fiscal impact of AB 415 on the State of California, primarily focusing on the Medi-Cal program. In addition, we described the fiscal effects that expanded use of telehealth (as envisioned by AB 415) could bring to other health services payers in California.

In 2007, before the Affordable Care Act expansion of health care coverage, the Schwarzenegger Administration proposed an expansion of access to care in California. The California HealthCare Foundation engaged the Blue Sky Consulting Group to estimate the likely fiscal impact of this proposal on California counties. By constructing a model of the likely response of consumers to the incentives embodied in the bill and identifying and analyzing the characteristics of the affected populations, we were able to accurately estimate the fiscal effects of the proposal. We presented the results of our work in a public meeting held at the state capitol and attended by key legislative and administration staff involved in the health care expansion effort.