December 9, 2025

Strengthening Care Where It Matters Most: What We Learned From EQuIP-LA

TOPLINES

An independent evaluation shows that targeted support helped independent practices across Los Angeles achieve meaningful, equity-centered improvements in patient care.

Small independent practices are essential to California’s health care safety net. They provide trusted, community-based care to millions of patients, yet they often have fewer resources to develop the quality improvement (QI) and data capabilities needed to meet today’s health care demands.

A new independent evaluation of the Equity and Quality at Independent Practices in Los Angeles (EQuIP-LA) initiative shows what’s possible when these practices receive targeted support. EQuIP-LA (2023-2025) provided funding, individualized coaching and hands-on technical assistance to 31 independent practices that collectively served more than 50,000 Medi-Cal enrollees.

The evaluation, conducted by the Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE), found that participating practices made meaningful gains in clinical quality, strengthened foundational primary care capabilities and increased their ability to sustain improvement over time.

EQuIP-LA was funded by the California Health Care Foundation.

What the Evaluation Found

Significant improvement in priority clinical measures

Across the two-year initiative, practices demonstrated statistically significant improvements in three priority areas: controlling blood pressure, colorectal cancer screening and glycemic status assessment for patients with diabetes. Almost every practice improved at least one clinical measure, and more reached national performance benchmarks by the end of the program. Practices credited strategies such as proactive patient outreach, documentation improvements and use of at-home screening kits.

Stronger advanced primary care capabilities

Practices also saw gains across most of the seven foundational domains of primary care, including engaged leadership, team-based care and data-driven improvement. Many achieved the maximum score in one or more domains and reported increased confidence in sustaining new workflows and participating in future QI programs.

Coaching improved infrastructure across the ecosystem

Through EQuIP-LA’s community-based coaching model, four provider organizations strengthened their internal coaching, data reporting and QI support infrastructure. These organizations plan to continue coaching and partnership with practices beyond the grant period.

Health equity embedded throughout

EQuIP-LA integrated equity into every component of the program, from intentionally recruiting practices serving diverse communities to supporting data stratification, patient-family engagement and outreach tailored to population needs. Participants reported increased understanding of equity concepts and early steps toward operationalizing these practices.

“CQC has helped us by providing a lot of useful [health equity] tools and resources that we didn’t have before in working with practices and explaining these things to them.”
— Participant, provider organization

Why This Work Matters

Independent practices care for many of California’s most underserved communities. The EQuIP-LA evaluation shows that when practices receive time, tools and tailored support, they can achieve meaningful improvements in quality and build the capabilities needed for long-term change. These findings reinforce the importance of investing in the places where patients already receive care and where trusted relationships are strongest.

“Independent practices are cornerstones of care for Medi-Cal patients, and when we invest in their capacity, the entire health system benefits,” said Peter Robertson, Senior Director of Practice Transformation at the California Quality Collaborative. “These results show that meaningful improvement is not only possible but scalable across California.”

These results tell a powerful story about impact, and the practice experiences behind them offer an even deeper look at what change required.