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Aimee shares how an internship led to her ultimately landing in her current leadership role with the Los Angeles County Veterans Collaborative.  Aimee facilitates the coming together of many veteran service organizaitons in Los Angeles County to collaborate and ultimately serve veterans better throughout Los Angeles County.

Regen joins the show to help spotlight the numerous organizations supporting veterans in Los Angeles County, as well as how these organizations are being acknowledged through various awards that the public and veteran serving community can help provide nominations for.

Raine shares about her journey as a social worker, including gaining her JD while winning runner up in the Ms. Hawaii pageant, starting as a frontline social worker in a hospital setting, to ultimately leading a social work team while building programs around the CalAIM initiative at Blue Shield California. Raine closes out the show discussing her next chapter and the start of her own consulting firm.

Nicole joins host Gavin Ward and shares about U.S. VETS recent groundbreaking of a new 30-unit community in San Bernardino as part of U.S. VETSs goal of eradicating homelessness among veterans. She also shares about the upcoming Steps for Vets 5k, honoring social workers, and recapping all of what U.S. VETS does for our veteran community.

MedZed's Chief Growth Officer Enrique Balaguer joins host Gavin Ward to discuss MedZed's impact as one of the largest enhanced care management and community supports providers in California.

Riverside County DPSS leaders Allison Gonzalalez and Sandra Bowlan discuss some of the changes to Medi-Cal eligibility in 2026.  They share what the nearly 1 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries in Riverside County (and similar to all CA counties) can do to maintain eligibility not just this year, but in the years ahead with the federal government's changes being phased in.

The former Medicaid leader for the CA Department of Health Care Services Jacey Cooper discusses the creation of the CalAIM initiative what she sees as the future of services like Enhanced Care Management, Community Supports, and more.

Blue Shield of California's Julianne Holloway joins host Gavin Ward to help explain the often conplex world of DSNP, or Duals Special Needs Plans, for individuals that qualify for both Medi-Cal (known as Medicaid Nationally) and Medicare

Pair Team VP Megan Carlson shares how her background in building care navigation systems (e.g. Unite Us) has equipped her to help Pair team enable existing organizations to launch enhanced care management services.  Pair Team is now one of the largest ECM organizations on California.

Ryan Iwamoto, Executive Producer of PopHealth Podcast and Co-Founder of 24 Hour Home Care, joins the show to look back on 10 years of the podcast and some of his favorite memories as he reminisces with host Gavin Ward.

Charles returns to the show, touching on his past as a soccer coach before sharing the realities health plans are facing in California.  Charles also shares with host Gavin Ward about the upcoming fall CAHP conference, including how leaders from health plans, providers, and DHCS will be attending to present as well as network.

Former DHCS leader Athena Chapman, President of Chapman Consulting, and Chapman's VP Elizabeth Evenson join host Gavin Ward to give an update on Medi-Cal Transformation/CalAIM, including touching on the 2024 annual report recently released by DHCS on Community Supports.

Health Net's Regional Medical Director Dr. Anshul Dixit and Vivant Health's Utilization Management Review Supervisor Kathleen Loredo share how they partner together with Dignity Health's greater Sacramento hospitals, including one recent effort that reduced unnecessary hospital stays by 400 while increasing provider show up rates by 20% after discharge.

Lisa Ramsey, a former Medi-Cal worker who created Medi-Cal Consulting Services, joins the show to share about updates on Medi-Cal eligibility, including reminders about some often misunderstood limits on income requirements.

Chrisina Mills, a leading advocate for the disability community, was recently appointed to serve as the Executive Director for the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging.  Christina, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (bones can easily break), has led a 25 year career in advocacy for the disabled community and looks forward to supporting older adults with initiatives that often align with both the aging and disability communities.