The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 13, 2026 - The department stated that its budget projections for 2026 ‑27 do not incorporate any potential added costs due to the changes in H.R 1. Will the department be able to determine whether its costs increase in the future due to H.R. 1?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5157

The 2025-26 Budget: Health Care Access and Information

Feb 20, 2025 - Historically, prescription drug prices have tended to grow faster than prices for overall consumer goods and services. As Figure  5 shows, however, as measured by the consumer price index, prescription drug cost inflation has slowed over the past 50 years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4979

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Analysis

Mar 2, 2026 - One possible reason for our higher estimate is that our model reflects not only disenrollment among current enrollees, but also reduced enrollment flows over time and a persistent risk of disenrollment among eligible individuals due to added administrative burden.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5146

The 2025-26 Budget: Medi-Cal Pharmacy Spending

Apr 3, 2025 - Under these formulas, a dru g ’s initial rebate is between 13  percent and 23  percent of its price, depending on the type of drug. Over time, the initial rebate increases if the drug ’s price rises faster than inflation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5026

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Health

Oct 16, 2025 - To maintain licensure, these entities must (1)  act in a payor ’s best interests; (2)  submit financial statements to DMHC; and (3)  submit drug pricing data to HCAI, among other requirements. Pharmacy benefit managers are to pay annual fees to support DMHC ’s and HCAI ’s ongoing regulatory costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5075

Considering Medi-Cal in the Midst of a Changing Fiscal and Policy Landscape

Oct 24, 2025 - …But Potentially With Added Complexity. Adding more flexibilities also could come with the potential downside of more complexity for beneficiaries and counties. For example, exempting high unemployment counties from work requirements could create more volatility.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5083

The 2025-26 Budget: Understanding Recent Increases in the Medi-Cal Senior Caseload

Mar 6, 2025 - In the paragraphs that follow, we provide our analysis that results in ou r estimate of at least 165,000 seniors being added due to eligibility expansions since 2020. (As a consequence of this estimate, it follows naturally that we estimate up to 60,000  seniors being added due to the effects of continuous coverage, the unwinding, and unwinding flexibilities, for a total increase of 225,000 seniors due to policy changes.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5010

Building California’s Behavioral Health Infrastructure: Progress Update and Opportunities for the Proposition 1 Bond

Feb 5, 2025 - Strategies to do so have included expanding the behavioral health workforce; adding benefits and increasing rates in Medi ‑Cal; and increasing capacity through managed care plans, schools, and in other  settings.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4954

The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Community Care Demonstration Project

Feb 19, 2021 - Counties would need to weigh this potential benefit against ( 1)  t he added responsibility of treating all felony ISTs and ( 2)  t he premium they would have to pay to send select felony ISTs to DSH.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4382

Mental Health Services Act: Revenue Volatility and the Governor’s Proposal to Reduce Allowable County Reserves

Jul 13, 2023 - One way to measure the variability in a data series is average deviation (AD). AD summarizes —for a given time period —how many percentage points the data in a series deviate from the average growth rate.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4780