Sustainability of California's Whole Person Care pilots integrating medical and social services for Medicaid enrollees via newly developed Medicaid benefits.

Objective: To assess multi-level factors influencing the sustainability of 26 social care pilots integrating medical and social services for Medicaid enrollees across California in newly developed Medicaid benefits.

Study setting and design: This qualitative study assessed the sustainability of Whole Person Care (WPC) pilots implemented between 2016 and 2021. Pilots (n = 26) represented a majority of counties in California.

Data sources and analytic sample: Primary qualitative data were collected between June and August 2021 and included 58 hour-long, semi-structured individual and group interviews with administrators, middle managers, and frontline case management staff representing all WPC pilots. We used hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis to identify and analyze patterns, and outliers, in factors influencing sustainment. Deductive codes included established implementation science factors influencing the sustainability of new programs (e.g., innovation characteristics, capacity, processes and interactions, and context).

Principal findings: Of 26 WPC pilots, 22 pilots sustained WPC by contracting with Medicaid managed care plans to provide services as part of newly developed Medicaid benefits. Three pilots chose not to sustain before the pilot period ended and one pilot decided not to sustain following completion of the full pilot. Factors influencing sustainability included: (1) program adaptability and flexibility; (2) funding structure and reimbursement requirements; (3) shared leadership with managed care plans; and (4) whether pilots chose to build out program infrastructure internally or contracted out core components to partner organizations. Many pilots, particularly those in rural areas, indicated that system and policy changes introduced as part of transitioning pilot services into Medicaid benefits reduced the sustainability of WPC for participating providers.

Conclusions: Multi-level factors including program adaptability, funding, leadership, and capacity to build out infrastructure influenced the sustainability of WPC pilots. These findings have significant implications for health equity as equitable distribution of services, resources, and benefits from these programs can be supported through sustained implementation over time.