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Home > For Providers > Manage Care > Enhanced Care Management (ECM) Provider Information

Manage Care

Enhanced Care Management (ECM) Provider Information

Enhanced Care Management (ECM) is a Medi-Cal benefit administered by DHCS.

Core service components are delivered mostly face to face with members through community-based ECM providers.

ECM-eligible members will be assigned an ECM provider and a lead care manager who will assess members to best support their health care and social needs.

To refer a member to ECM services, visit our ECM/CS referral page.

Core components of ECM services

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Outreach and engagement

The Alliance will authorize referrals for the ECM program. Ideally, ECM providers will engage with eligible community participants in person in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way to inspire trust and build relationships. The Alliance and ECM providers will collaborate to provide support for eligible participants whether they accept or decline ECM services.

Comprehensive assessment and care management plan

ECM providers will develop a person-centered care management plan, including input from the participant and their clinical team. This care plan should:

  • Identify clinical and non-clinical resources.
  • Include person-centered strengths, risks, needs and goals.
  • Prioritize physical and developmental health, mental health, dementia, substance use disorder (SUD), long-term services and supports (LTSS), oral health, palliative care, necessary community-based and social services, and housing.

The plan should be reassessed and updated as the person’s needs evolve.

Enhanced coordination of care

ECM providers organize activities per a care management plan by partnering with a multi-disciplinary team of care providers.

This includes ensuring that:

  • The participant is connected with their primary doctor for care management assistance.
  • Care is continuous and integrated among all service providers.

Care coordination includes:

  • Coordination for medication review and/or reconciliation.
  • Scheduling appointments.
  • Providing appointment reminders.
  • Coordinating transportation.
  • Accompaniment to critical appointments.
  • Identifying and helping address other barriers to care, including supporting member communication with providers.
Health promotion

Health promotion involves encouraging and supporting ECM participants to make lifestyle choices that support their health and wellness. This could include:

  • Coaching.
  • Strengthening a participant’s ability to identify and access resources.
  • Using practices such as motivational interviewing to support participants in managing their own care.
Transitional care services

Transitional care services aim to decrease care facility readmissions. ECM providers partner with care facilities to support participants in transferring levels of care. This involves support in areas such as medications and follow-up.

Transitional care services include:

  • Having a discharge plan.
  • Assisting participants with all associated logistics (such as transportation and medication reconciliation).
  • Helping the participant understand the plan.
Member and family supports

Member and family supports refer to communication with an identified support person regarding the participant’s conditions and overall goals. The ECM provider will ensure that the appropriate authorizations are in place.

Additionally, the ECM provider is responsible for the following aspects of involving the participant and their family and/or support people:

  • Acting as a primary point of contact.
  • Identifying support needed.
  • Providing education and a care management plan.

The participant should be actively involved in the process and the care plan that is shared with the support person.

Coordination of and Referral to Community and Social Support Services

Coordination of and referral to community and social support services involves determining appropriate services to meet the needs of members receiving ECM. This to ensure that any present or emerging social factors can be identified and properly addressed.

Coordination of and referral to community and social support services could include, but is not limited to:

  • Determining appropriate services to meet the needs of members, including services that address social determinants of health (including housing) and services offered by Contractor as Community Supports.
  • Coordinating and referring members to available community resources and following up with members (and/or their parent, caregiver or guardian) to ensure services were rendered (i.e., “closed loop referrals”).

Who is eligible to receive ECM services?

ECM will be implemented in stages by eligible populations of focus.

 

Status Populations of Focus
Now available
  • Individuals and Families Experiencing Homelessness.
  • Individuals at Risk for Avoidable Hospital or ED Utilization (formerly Adult High Utilizers).
  • Adults with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) / Substance Use Disorder (SUD).
  • Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities, if they meet any of the criteria for the above 3 populations of focus.
  • At Risk for Institutionalization and Eligible for Long Term Care.
  • Nursing Facility Residents Transitioning to the Community.
  • Children/Youth enrolled in CCS or CCS WCM with Additional Needs.
  • Children and Youth Involved in Child Welfare.
  • Pregnant and Postpartum Individuals.
  • Birth Equity.
  • Individuals Transitioning from Incarceration.

More information about populations of focus can be found below in the ECM Criteria section. For detailed definitions, please refer to the DHCS ECM Policy Guide.

ECM criteria

Alliance members who match the following criteria under a population of focus are eligible for ECM services.

Homelessness

Homelessness (Adult)

  • Are experiencing homelessness and
  • Have at least one complex physical, behavioral or developmental need, with inability to successfully self-manage.

Homelessness (Pediatric)

Are experiencing homelessness or are:

  • Sharing the housing of other persons (i.e., couch surfing), or
  • Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camping grounds, or
  • Living in emergency or transitional shelters or
  • Are abandoned in hospitals(in hospital without a safe place to be discharged to).
At Risk of Avoidable ED/Hospital Use

At Risk of Avoidable ED/Hospital Use (Adults)

  • Five or more emergency room visits in a six-month period that could have been avoided with appropriate outpatient care or improved treatment adherence or
  • Three or more unplanned hospital and/or short-term skilled nursing facility (SNF) stays in a six-month period that could have been avoided with appropriate outpatient care or improved treatment adherence.

At Risk of Avoidable ED/Hospital Use (Pediatric)

  • Three or more ED visits in a 12-month period that could have been avoided with appropriate outpatient care or improved treatment adherence or
  • Two or more unplanned hospital and/or short-term SNF stays in a 12-month period that could have been avoided with appropriate outpatient care or improved treatment adherence.
SMI/SUD

SMI/SUD (Adults)

Meet the eligibility criteria for participation in or obtaining services through:

  • SMHS delivered by MHPs, and
  • The Drug Medi-Cal Organization Delivery System (DMC-ODS) or the Drug Medi-Cal (DMC) program, and
  • Are experiencing at least one complex social factor influencing their health and
  • Meet one or more of the following criteria:
    • Are at high risk for institutionalization, overdose and/or suicide.
    • Use crisis services, EDs, urgent care or inpatient stays as the primary source of care.
    • Experienced two or more ED visits or two or more hospitalizations due to serious mental health or SUD in the past 12 months.
    • Are pregnant or postpartum (12 months from delivery).

SMI/SUD (Peds)

Meet the eligibility criteria for participation in, or obtaining services through one or more of:

  • SMHS delivered by MHPs.
  • The DMC-ODS or the DMC program.
Adults Living in the Community and At Risk for LTC Institutionalization
  • Adults living in the community who meet the SNF Level of Care (LOC) criteria or who require lower-acuity skilled nursing, and
  • Are actively experiencing at least one complex social or environmental factor influencing their health and
  • Are able to reside continuously in the community with wraparound supports.
Adult Nursing Facility Residents Transitioning to the Community

Adult nursing facility residents who:

  • Are interested in moving out of the institution, and
  • Are likely candidates to do so successfully and
  • Are able to reside continuously in the community.
Children and Youth Enrolled in CCS or CCS WCM with Additional Needs Beyond the CCS Condition
  • Are enrolled in CCS or CCS WCM, and
  • Are experiencing at least one complex social factor influencing their health.
Children and Youth Involved in Child Welfare

Children who:

  • Are under age 21 and are currently receiving foster care in California or
  • Are under age 21 and previously received foster care in California or another state within the last 12 months or
  • Have aged out of foster care up to age 26 (having been in foster care on their 18th birthday or later) in California or another state or
  • Are under age 18 and are eligible for and/or in California’s Adoption Assistance Program or
  • Are under age 18 and are currently receiving or have received services from California’s Family Maintenance program within the last 12 months.
Adults/Children with an Intellectual/Developmental Disability
  • Have a diagnosed I/DD and
  • Qualify for eligibility in any other ECM Population of Focus.
Pregnancy, Postpartum
  • Are pregnant or are postpartum (through 12 months period) and
  • Meet one or more of the following conditions:
    • Qualify for eligibility in any other adult or youth ECM Population of Focus.
Adults Transitioning from Incarceration

Adults who:

  • Are transitioning from a correctional facility (e.g., prison, jail or youth correctional facility) or transitioned from correctional facility within the past 12 months; and
  • Have at least one of the following conditions:
    • Mental illness.
    • SUD.
    • Chronic Condition/Significant Non-Chronic Clinical Condition.
    • Intellectual or Developmental Disability (I/DD).
    • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
    • HIV/AIDS.
    • Pregnant or Postpartum.
Children and Youth Transitioning from a Youth Correctional Facility
  • Children and youth who are transitioning from a youth correctional facility or transitioned from being in a youth correctional facility within the past 12 months.
Birth Equity Population of Focus (Adults and Youth)

Adults and youth who:

  • Are pregnant or are postpartum (through 12 months period) and
  • Are subject to racial and ethnic disparities as defined by California public health data on maternal morbidity and mortality (the racial and ethnic groups experiencing disparities in care for maternal morbidity and mortality are Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Pacific Islander pregnant and postpartum individuals).

Resources

  • ECM Provider Toolkit
  • ECM Outreach Toolkit
  • ECM Member Toolkit
  • Enhanced Care Management for Children and Youth: A Populations of Focus Spotlight
  • Enhanced Care Management (ECM) for Homelessness: Populations of Focus (POF) Spotlight

Justice Involved (JI) Liaison Contact Information

Alliance ECM team
Phone: 831-430-5512
Email [email protected]

Interested in becoming an ECM or CS provider? Email us at [email protected].

ECM/CS Resources

  • Refer members to ECM/CS
  • FAQs
  • Training
  • PATH Collaborative Meetings

ECM/CS Provider Directory

  • Mariposa and Merced Counties
  • Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties
  • San Benito County

Contact us | Toll free: 800-700-3874

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