Catalyst for Health 2026

Leading California purchasers, encompassing both public (Covered CA, CalPERS) and private employer coalitions (PBGH), have proactively taken on the mantle of driving accountability for both equitable outcomes and sustainable costs. The session highlights how these powerful organizations are tackling this dual challenge using their individual data and leverage. PBGH sets the fiscal context by sharing high-impact, proprietary cost transparency data from the Health Care Data Demonstration Project, exposing the unjustifiable variation in Total Cost of Care (TCOC) across the California market. Covered CA and CalPERS will demonstrate how they are pivoting from simply measuring disparities to using their financial leverage to ensure that interventions both close equity gaps and lower the cost curve. Learn how these influential purchasers are turning their unique data insights into tangible mechanisms to strengthen accountability for health plans and provider systems across the state.

A recent statewide assessment by CHCF and Aurrera Health uncovered critical gaps and opportunities to transform substance use treatment in California. This session turns those insights into practical, cross-setting solutions—showing how to update clinic policies, redesign workflows for low-barrier MAT, strengthen care-team collaboration, and reduce disparities across primary care, behavioral health, community clinics, and county systems. Drawing on implementation lessons from Alameda County, presenters will demonstrate how patient-centered policy change and workflow re-engineering drive measurable improvements in engagement, retention, and safety. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use templates, tools, and a clear roadmap to lead evidence-based, compassionate MAT integration in their own systems.

The postpartum year is a critical, yet neglected, period leading to the “postpartum cliff”—a systemic drop-off in care access and coordination that contributes significantly to maternal mortality, especially among Black women. This session directly confronts this systemic failure by showcasing actionable solutions to build a sustained “Postpartum Bridge”, anchored in the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)’s current statewide efforts to advance postpartum health equity. The California Quality Collaborative (CQC) is supporting this state work by leading the effort to redefine the standard of care. This high-impact panel will unveil practical, ready-to-use clinical recommendations for standard of care and key implementation priorities developed by CQC’s Clinical Expert Workgroup and Payer Roundtables. Attendees will hear from leading clinical stakeholders who will share their delivery system considerations in developing these new standards of care. Crucially, this is a critical working dialogue. The panel invites the audience to provide direct and actionable advice to refine the plan for moving this work forward statewide—focusing on strategy for dissemination, education, and implementation—and to discuss opportunities for their potential engagement in enacting this plan to strengthen California’s Postpartum Bridge.

This session offers a focused look at the operational realities and complex decisions essential for achieving multi-payer alignment and fundamentally changing primary care payment across California. Health plan leaders will share the strategic choices, coordination efforts, and key lessons learned while adjusting underlying payment infrastructure and moving from competition to collaboration. An IPA/MSO supporting practices will discuss the necessary resources and support structures needed for success at the practice level under this new payment structure. Paving the critical path for scaling this work, the session will explore opportunities to expand the current model and examine how multi-payer alignment can achieve California’s primary care investment goals. This is a direct invitation: Attendees are encouraged to contribute their insights and ideas to inform the next phase of this initiative.

Building on the well-established evidence that greater investment in primary care leads to stronger health outcomes, the Health Plan of San Mateo (HPSM) has launched an ambitious Primary Care Investment Strategy. A key part of this strategy includes their approach to calculating primary care spend as a share of total health expenditures and the actionable insights gained from this approach. Leaders will also share how the plan committed to increasing primary care spending by 30% per capita over three years—and what it takes to turn that commitment into measurable impact. Attendees will gain a clear view of how targeted financial strategy can strengthen primary care and reshape population health.

Chronic kidney disease remains widely underdiagnosed in California, leading to overwhelming and avoidable costs, particularly among high-risk patients with diabetes and hypertension. Leaders from the National Kidney Foundation and Bayer Pharmaceuticals will unpack the evidence behind low screening rates, the financial consequences of late-stage diagnosis, and the immense burden of late stage interventions such as dialysis and transplant care. The session will spotlight practical strategies for improving screening, enabling earlier diagnosis, and deploying emerging treatment options that offer a critical return on investment by altering the clinical and cost trajectory of CKD for patients and California health systems.

Strategic partnerships and sustainable funding models are key to strengthening care delivery and advancing health equity. This session shares lessons and promising practices from two initiatives that approached this need from complementary angles. Health Net and Futuro Health will demonstrate how partnerships between plans, providers, and education partners are key to building a more resilient, diverse workforce—and how they are utilizing billing innovations to sustain these efforts long term. Next, Sutter Health will spotlight their Patient Navigator Program that connects individuals to primary care homes and essential wraparound supports such as transportation, housing, food access, and medication management. Attendees will leave with practical insights into designing and financing workforce and navigation models that reduce barriers to care, improve outcomes, and create continuity across health and community systems.