The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) 2020 Virtual Conference: Together Towards the Future will feature a Ted Talks panel titled Medicaid Managed Care Solutions for Specific Populations. Representatives from three health plans will each give seven-minute presentations on a program that each plan has launched as a solution. Wendy Schiffer, L.A. Care’s Senior Director of Strategic Planning, will present on the In-Home Supportive Services and Home Care Training Program that is part of L.A. Care’s Elevating the Safety Net (ESN) initiative.
Schiffer will explain that the primary goal of the Training Program is to provide value for the caregiver members of L.A. Care’s PASC-SEIU product, as well as for the dual-eligible members they care for. The tools that the caregivers receive in this training program allow them to become a more integrated member of the care team – able to communicate with confidence to the member’s primary care physician.
The 10-week course, run throughout the year by the California Long-Term Care Education Center (CLTCEC), teaches caregivers CPR, first aid, medication administration, nutrition and personal care. The course has proven to reduce the number of ER visits and in-patient hospital stays for members whose caregivers received this training, proving it is indeed a solution for a specific population of our membership.
The program has already trained about 3,000 caregivers with plans to train another 3,000 over the next three years. The ESN initiative was launched in 2018 to recruit primary care physicians into the Los Angeles County safety net to care for L.A. Care members, and the caregiver training program was added to the initiative earlier this year.