What is Population Health Management? In the words of Dr. Kimberly Gibbons of Southern New Hampshire University, “Population health management is the process of studying and facilitating healthcare and its delivery to create improvement for a population of individuals.” Essentially, it is a movement dedicated to facilitating healthcare systems for the growth of populations worldwide. A recent example of this would be the CalAIM Population Health Management Initiative, added as a cornerstone to the CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal) plan by California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) in 2023. CalAIM is a far-reaching, multi-year plan that aims to transform and seamlessly integrate California’s Medicaid program, or Medi-Cal, with other social services. CalAIM’s goal is to improve the outcomes for the millions of Californians covered by Medi-Cal, which thus led to the establishment of its Population Health Management Initiative (PHMI/PHM) in 2023. Supported by Medi-CAl Connect, a data solution designed to close service gas, PHM serves to ensure members access comprehensive care for better health outcomes and equity. Embedded in CalAIM, PHM requires managed care plans or MCPs to build trust, use data for care improvements, focus on preventive strategies, and address social determinants of health. All in all, CalAIM’s PHM initiative serves as a pivotal tool to bridge healthcare gaps to foster a more equitable and efficient healthcare system by ensuring comprehensive care and addressing the needs of diverse populations across the healthcare continuum.
Sources:
https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/health/what-is-population-health-management
https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/CalAIM/Pages/PopulationHealthManagement