Report 2023-103 Recommendation 9 Responses

Report 2023-103: The Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program: The Lack of Usage Data Prevents the State From Knowing How Often Medi‑Cal Members Receive Perinatal Care (Release Date: February 2024)

Recommendation #9 To: Public Health, Department of

To comply with state law, Public Health should develop and implement a data form for use by providers to collect comprehensive information on perinatal services offered and used, the results of which should be sent to Health Care Services to gather necessary information on the program's usage and effectiveness. At a minimum, this form should include whether providers are rendering perinatal services to Medi-Cal members. Based in part on information collected by local health coordinators during their reviews, we developed a sample form to illustrate the type of information Public Health should collect, as shown in Appendix A.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From February 2026

Public Health remains in continued discussions with Health Care Services to support CPSP modernization activities under California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM), including initiatives such as the Birthing Care Pathway (BCP). As part of CalAIM, Health Care Services requires all Medi-Cal managed care plans (MCP) to ensure that pregnant and postpartum members can access and use the full range of pregnancy and pregnancy-related services and supports.

The BCP data and quality policy solutions include leveraging new linkages of administrative data to improve cross-enrollment of Medi-Cal members and integrate existing California maternity data centers (e.g. California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, Public Health) with Medi-Cal data to more comprehensively measure and monitor birth outcomes. Health Care Services already has established infrastructure and data systems that will capture the data/information CSA recommended and more. Public Health and Health Care Services continue to collaborate regularly and are committed to taking a data-driven approach to strengthen state oversight and monitoring.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

1-Year Agency Response

Public Health and Health Care Services are in continued discussions to support CPSP modernization activities. Public Health and Health Care Services meet regularly and are committed to taking a data-driven approach to strengthen state oversight and monitoring. At a high level, monitoring will focus on ensuring Medi-Cal members can access and use the full range of pregnancy and pregnancy-related services and supports. It will also evaluate overall quality and health outcomes by leveraging existing Health Care Services mechanisms and available data. Public Health and Health Care Services will continue to collaborate on this front.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

Public Health and Health Care Services meet regularly to discuss options for being responsive to the recommendations to capture CPSP program usage and effectiveness. The collaboration supports CPSP modernization across all Medi-Cal systems and will explore current administrative data and tools that exist to help assess program usage and effectiveness.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Public Health will meet with Health Care Services to initiate collaboration on options to capture program usage and effectiveness.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2023-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.