Collaboration strategies for bridging health, behavioral health, and social services in California's Medi‐Cal Whole Person Care Pilot Program
研究了加州全人关怀试点项目（WPC）中用于整合健康、行为健康和社会服务的协作策略，发现成功改善跨部门协作的试点采用了有意义的合作伙伴参与、资金捆绑和推动系统变革等策略。
OBJECTIVE: To identify collaboration strategies used to integrate health, behavioral health, and social services for Medicaid members in California's Medi-Cal Whole Person Care Pilot program (WPC). DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: WPC was a social care intervention implemented to identify and address eligible members' health, behavioral health, and social needs. Data included semi-structured key informant interviews conducted in 2018-2019 (n = 221) and 2021 (n = 167); pilot-level surveys; whole-network surveys of 507 organizations in all 25 pilots participating in WPC; and documents submitted by pilots to the state. Pilots served a total of 247,887 unique members between 2017 and 2021, the majority of whom were non-white (72%) and over half of whom experienced homelessness. STUDY DESIGN/DATA COLLECTION: Data were collected as part of the statewide evaluation of WPC. We analyzed qualitative data to examine strategies used by pilots to integrate care, network data to identify pilots that improved cross-sector collaboration (i.e., strengthened density or multiplexity of cross-sector ties) following WPC implementation, and comparative case analysis to identify strategies that differentiated pilots that improved collaboration from those that did not. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Pilots used multiple strategies to facilitate the integration of care. Network analyses identified 10 pilots that significantly improved either density or multiplexity of cross-sector ties, and one pilot with high cross-sector collaboration prior to WPC. Compared to pilots that did not improve cross-sector collaboration, these pilots meaningfully engaged partners in program design and implementation, used braided funds, and leveraged WPC to support broader systems change. These pilots also reported fewer challenges in developing and managing contractual relationships and ensuring meaningful use of data-sharing infrastructure by frontline staff responsible for care coordination. CONCLUSIONS: Data sharing is necessary but not sufficient for systems alignment. Collaboration strategies focused on addressing financial barriers to integration and strengthening normative and interpersonal integration are also needed.