OXON HILL, Md. — California’s Medicaid agency has won a 2026 Spotlight Award from the National Association of Medicaid Directors for nonclinical services that have reached more than 528,000 Medi-Cal members since 2022.
The association, known as NAMD, announced the honor Thursday for the California Department of Health Care Services. It cited measurable gains in member health along with lower avoidable costs.
Through the program, called Community Supports, Medi-Cal members can get help with housing, medically supportive meals, asthma remediation and other needs outside a doctor’s office. NAMD said the services help people stabilize sooner and avoid emergency rooms, hospital stays and long-term care placements.
The services launched in 2022 under CalAIM, short for California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal. More than 1.5 million services have been delivered since then.
Two consecutive analyses submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services linked the services to significant drops in emergency department visits, inpatient hospital stays and use of institutional long-term care. According to NAMD, 10 of the 12 services evaluated already produce net Medicaid savings, with reductions reaching as high as 79.9%.
Tyler Sadwith, California’s state Medicaid director, said a close look at what drove poor health among many members pointed to one answer: “people were struggling with the basics.”
Medical care alone cannot change the outlook for someone with no place to sleep or a child whose asthma is triggered at home, Sadwith said. The services, he added, are meant to “prevent crises before they happen.”
Kate McEvoy, NAMD’s executive director, said California showed that housing, food and other basic needs can be addressed “with rigor, at scale, and with real savings for taxpayers.” Other states and territories can adapt the approach to their own circumstances, she said.
California did not wait for new federal authority. Instead, the department relied on existing managed care rules that let health plans offer certain community-based services as cost-effective substitutes for traditional medical care, an option known as “in lieu of services.”
California pays for 15 such services, and only one is required. Health plans choose from the other 14 based on local needs and on what is working. NAMD said that approach has spurred faster adoption and innovation than a strict mandate would have.
The annual award recognizes leadership and innovation in Medicaid administration.
NAMD also honored Washington’s Health Care Authority for a cross-agency pathway that helps children, youth and young adults with complex needs get timely care when several systems share responsibility for them.
North Dakota Medicaid won for linking a share of hospital payments to quality. At participating hospitals, breast cancer screening nearly doubled between 2022 and 2025, from 28.4% to 55.2%, according to NAMD. Annual well-care visits for children and teens rose from 45.2% to 57% over the same period.
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