PopHealth Podcast

California is devoted to Veteran Resource Centers (VRCs) at state universities and community colleges.  San Bernardino Valley College VRC leader Jason Alvarez joins the show alongside VRC alum Daniel Hinojosa Jr to share the lifelong impact college and university based VRCs can have on veterans.

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.