Catalyst for Community-led Reinvestment

Building community power to shape equitable Medi-Cal reinvestment decisions and implementation

California’s Medi-Cal program now requires its managed care plans (MCPs) to reinvest a portion of their profits to support community health and wellbeing, with investments reflecting the priorities and aspirations of community partners. To make that objective a reality, communities need to be part of decision making, and success will depend on how the new program is implemented.

The Catalyst for Community Reinvestment website supports this work by sharing resources, tools, and newly released county-level data, obtained through a Public Records Act request, showing Medi-Cal managed care plans’ 2026 community reinvestment obligation amounts.

The purpose of this project is to build community knowledge and power to engage as co-designers in Community Reinvestment planning and implementation. Our goal is to catalyze community partnerships by building authentic community engagement processes and infrastructure to ensure sustainable collaboration between health care, public health, behavioral health, with leadership and decision making by community-based organizations and residents. Running from December 2025 to November 2028, the project is housed at PI and implemented in collaboration with Golden Policy Partners and JPC Health Strategies.

Primary activities:

Building community capacity for meaningful engagement in reinvestment planning through outreach, learning opportunities, and practical tools that clarify program processes and participation pathways.

Assessing and documenting community engagement practices to identify barriers, promising approaches, and lessons that strengthen power-sharing in health investment decisions.

Supporting advocacy, alignment, and field coordination to elevate community-informed recommendations across managed care plans, state agencies, and regional partners.

Scaling effective practices and models of community-led planning and implementation, sharing guidance via briefs, case examples, and resources grounded in community experience.