Health and Human Services Publications
To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.
The 2021-22 Budget: Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) Program
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February 23, 2021 - This handout provides our comments on the Governor's budget proposals related to the Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment program.
The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Community Care Demonstration Project
February 19, 2021 - This post analyzes the Governor’s proposal in the Department of State Hospitals to provide $233.2 million General Fund in 2021-22 and $136.4 million General Fund in 2022-23 and ongoing to establish a demonstration project—that would be optional for counties to participate in—in which responsibility for treating individuals found incompetent to stand trial and facing a felony charge would be realigned to participating counties.
The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Continuum Infrastructure Funding Proposal
February 17, 2021 - This post analyzes the Governor’s proposal in the Department of Health Care Services to provide $750 million General Fund—on a one-time basis—in competitive grants to counties to acquire or renovate facilities for community behavioral health services.
The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Medi-Cal Student Services Funding Proposal
February 17, 2021 - This post analyzes the Governor’s proposal in the Department of Health Care Services to provide $200 million General Fund ($400 million total funds) one time to provide incentive payments to Medi-Cal managed care plans to increase the number of students receiving behavioral health services.
The 2021-22 Budget: Medi-Cal Enterprise System Modernization Effort
February 17, 2021 - This post analyzes, and provides recommendations to the Legislature on, the 2021-22 Governor’s Budget proposal for the Department of Health Care Services to continue the replacement of several Medi-Cal information technology systems and to plan the modernization of the remaining systems under a new effort called the Medi-Cal Enterprise System Modernization.
The 2021-22 Budget: Analysis of CalAIM Financing Issues
February 16, 2021 - The California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal is a set of reforms to expand, transform, and streamline Medi-Cal service delivery and financing. This post—the second in a series assessing different aspects of the Governor’s proposal—analyzes CalAIM financing issues, including both the Governor’s funding plan for CalAIM as well as CalAIM’s policy changes related to Medi-Cal financing.
The 2021-22 Budget: Analysis of the Medi-Cal Budget
February 16, 2021 - This post analyzes the major adjustments to the Medi-Cal budget in 2020-21 and 2021-22, with a focus on the technical adjustments such as the administration’s caseload estimates. We will further analyze the major discretionary Medi-Cal proposals in separate publications and communications to the Legislature.
The 2021-22 Budget: Department of Child Support Services
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February 12, 2021 - Analyzes the Governor’s 2021-22 budget proposals related to the child support program, provides background on recent program developments and state review process of child support guidelines, and provides issues for the Legislature to consider.
The 2021-22 Budget: Analysis of Child Welfare Proposals
February 11, 2021 - In this analysis of the Governor’s 2021-22 budget proposal for child welfare programs, we: (1) provide program background; (2) outline the Governor’s proposed budget for child welfare services and foster care programs; and (3) provide key questions and issues for the Legislature to consider related to the administration’s proposals for continued pandemic response, implementation of the federal Family First Prevention Services Act, and ongoing implementation of Continuum of Care Reform.
The 2021-22 Budget: CalAIM: The Overarching Issues
February 9, 2021 - The California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal is a set of reforms to expand, transform, and streamline Medi-Cal service delivery and financing. This post—the first in a series assessing different aspects of the Governor’s proposal—provides a brief overview of CalAIM, summarizes key changes from last year’s withdrawn proposal, and analyzes overarching issues related to CalAIM.
The 2021-22 Budget: California Department of Technology
February 8, 2021 - This post discusses 2021-22 Governor’s Budget proposals for the California Department of Technology to use General Fund to pay the costs of some existing information security programs and services, and to create new programs and services that are intended to improve the delivery of critical state services using information technology (IT) systems and the stability of the state’s legacy IT infrastructure.
The 2021-22 Budget: California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Response
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February 8, 2021 - Presented to: Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.1 On Health and Human Services Hon. Dr. Joaquin Arambula, Chair
The 2021-22 Budget: California Department of Public Health's COVID‑19 Response
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February 5, 2021 - This publication describes how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spending is reflected in the California Department of Public Health’s budget. It offers options for how the Legislature can express its COVID-19-related goals and priorities in light of the administration’s reliance on midyear budget adjustments, provides an evaluative framework for assessing the administration’s proposals, and recommends an after-action review of the state’s public health response.
The 2021-22 Budget: Nutrition Access Programs
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February 4, 2021 - This handout highlights California's major nutrition access programs, related federal and state actions in response to COVID-19, and the Governor's CalFresh-related proposals in the 2021-22 budget.
The 2021-22 Budget: Analysis of the Governor’s CalWORKs Proposals
February 3, 2021 - In this post, we provide important background on California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs), updates on how caseload has been affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and analyze the Governor’s proposed CalWORKs budget. In short, caseload has declined precipitously in the most recent data, reaching a new all-time low in November 2020 (the most recent month for which there are data). This runs contrary to both the Governor’s budget (which assumes a fairly rapid rate of caseload growth from 2020 through 2022) and the historic relationship between caseload and economic data (which suggests caseload should increase following increased unemployment). In line with other efforts the administration is proposing to support low-income individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, we suggest the Legislature work with the administration to understand the factors leading to the lower than expected caseload and explore options for ensuring CalWORKs assistance reaches eligible families.
Health and Human Services Staff
- Mark Newton
- (916) 319-8323
- Deputy Legislative Analyst: Health, Developmental Services and IT
- Jackie Barocio
- (916) 319-8333
- In-Home Supportive Services/Aging Programs/Child Support/Veterans Affairs
- Ben Johnson
- (916) 319-8336
- Medi-Cal/Hospital Finance/Managed Care
- Sonja Petek
- (916) 319-8340
- Public Health/Developmental Services
- Ryan Anderson
- (916) 319-8308
- CalWORKs/CalFresh
- Brian Metzker
- (916) 319-8354
- Privacy, Security, and Technology
- Corey Hashida
- (916) 319-8315
- Medi-Cal/Behavioral Health/State Hospitals/Health Planning and Development
- Luke Koushmaro
- (916) 319-8355
- Medi-Cal/Long-Term Care/Family Health/Covered California
- Angela Short
- (916) 319-8309
- Teachers' Retirement Policy/ Child Welfare/ Community Care Licensing
- Ginni Bella Navarre
- (916) 319-8342
- Deputy Legislative Analyst: Human Services and Governance