NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Partnership HealthPlan of California (PHC) is prepared for an influx of new members as a result of changes to the healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act and other reform initiatives.

“We have been planning for this for a long time,” said Jack Horn, chief executive officer of Partnership HealthPlan of California. “Over the past several years, PHC has made a number of changes to our technology infrastructure, hired more than a hundred new staff members, opened regional offices and established new relationships in the communities we serve.”

The latest wave of new members into the plan will come on January 1st with the conversion of the County Medical Services Program (CMSP) to managed care Medi-Cal. PHC will gain more than 34,000 new members as a result.

“The unknown at this point is the number of people who will be new to Medi-Cal because of expanded eligibility,” Horn said.

Under that expansion, the threshold for eligibility has increased from $11,500 a year or 100 percent of the federal poverty level to 138 percent of the federal poverty level or $15,700 a year.

This new eligibility threshhold will bring more people into PHC’s membership, but the exact number will depend on enrollment efforts.

An estimated 31,000 people in PHC’s 14-county service area could become members under the expansion of eligibility.

Whatever that number will be, PHC is ready.

“We’ve been here before,” Mr. Horn said. “When the state moved the Healthy Families program in managed care Medi-Cal, we took in 42,000 new members. And our September expansion into eight northern rural counties brought in 104,000 new members. These previous expansions have gone very well, and they’ve helped us to refine our strategies going forward. Our provider network and community stakeholders have been instrumental in helping us as well.”

PHC began operating in 1994 and serves Medi-Cal recipients in 14 northern California counties: Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Marin, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Trinity and Yolo.

Additional information can be found at www.partnershiphp.org .