California Behavioral Health Program Performance 2019-2024

California Department of Health Care Services data underpins the state's Mental Health Performance Dashboard for fiscal years 2019-2020 to 2023-2024. It tracks Medi-Cal claims, encounters, and eligibility for Specialty and Non-Specialty Mental Health Services administered by County Mental Health Plans and Managed Care Plans.

Use Cases

• Analyze service utilization trends across demographic tags like Age, Race, and Sex for different program years.
• Compare performance outcome metrics between Specialty Mental Health Services (SMHS) and Non-Specialty Mental Health Services (NSMHS) programs.
• Examine service delivery patterns for specific populations such as Children or Adults within the Open Child Welfare (OCW) and Faster Care (FC) systems.
• Assess geographic and demographic coverage of behavioral health services using data tagged with Language and demographic categories.

Strengths

• Data covers five consecutive state fiscal years (2019-2020 to 2023-2024), providing a multi-year trend analysis window.
• Includes performance data for multiple service delivery systems (SMHS, NSMHS, MCPs) and specific programs (OCW, FC).
• Dataset is enriched with multiple demographic and programmatic tags including Age, Race, Sex, Language, and specific legislative codes (AB 470).

Limitations

• Specific data volume (row count, file size) and structural details (column names) are unavailable, hindering precise technical assessment.
• Data is derived from administrative claims and eligibility systems, which may contain coding inaccuracies or incomplete entries.
• Focus is exclusively on California's Medi-Cal population, limiting generalizability to other states or insurance types.

Provenance

Source

California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

Collection Method

Derived from Medi-Cal claims, encounter, and eligibility systems in accordance with California Welfare and Institutions Code § 14707.5.

Time Range

State fiscal years 2019-2020 to 2023-2024.

Freshness

Data was last updated on February 23, 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Geography

State of California, United States.