CenCal Health is a government run health program that is designed to improve the health and well-being of the people who live on the Central Coast of California. It provides access to medical services to those that qualify. It is not exactly health insurance, but it can help with medical costs.
In order to qualify you must live in either San Luis Obispo county in California, or Santa Barbara county in California. CenCal is made up of several different programs, each with it’s own specific qualifications. If you qualify for Medi-Cal, you will be issued a Benefits Identification Card (BIC) by the state of California, and a CenCal Health Identification card. You will have to check on a monthly basis to learn if you have continued to be eligible.
AIM is the Access for Infants and Mothers program. This covers pregnant women who have no health insurance, are not eligible for Medi-Cal, and who have a family income that is between 200% to 300% below the poverty level. If you are eligible for this program, you pay a small portion of the cost of coverage. This covers women during pregnancy and through the first sixty days after their babies are delivered. There is also a prenatal plus 2 program.
Healthy Families is a state and federally subsidized program. It offers medical, dental, and vision care to people from age one to nineteen who are not eligible for no-cost Medi-Cal, and who have no other forms of health insurance coverage. Your total family income must be below a certain amount. If you qualify for this program, you will be paying monthly premiums as well as co-payments for certain services.
There is also a Healthy Kids program that appears to be similar to the Healthy Families program. To qualify, you must be under age nineteen, and have a family income that is 300% below the Federal poverty level. You also cannot have been covered by employer sponsored health insurance in the last three months.
CenCal also includes the IHSS Workers Program, that gives comprehensive health coverage to care givers of disabled individuals. Eligibility criteria for this program is set by the County Public Authority.
CenCal uses a primary care network to provide health care to it’s members and subscribers. You will have to select a primary care physician, who will become your case manager. The primary care physician must make a referral before you can see a specialist, or get certain kinds of treatment. The doctors have to fill out specific forms in order to be reimbursed for the cost of the medical care they provide.
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