ORANGE, Calif. (April 9, 2024) — CalOptima Health’s Board of Directors has approved nearly $25 million in workforce education grants to seven institutions in Orange County. These grants mark the first phase of the $50 million Provider Workforce Development Initiative, the largest workforce grant ever awarded by CalOptima Health. The Initiative will help to address health disparities and better secure the future delivery of medical and behavioral health care by safety net providers. It also seeks to ease predicted shortages and gaps in the Orange County health care workforce that serves the Medi-Cal population.
CalOptima Health provides essential health care to about one in three Orange County residents. Both California and Orange County are facing a workforce shortage of trained health care professionals, particularly in community health centers and safety net providers. One major barrier to increasing the health care workforce is the lack of economic support for education, training, recruitment and retention of safety net health professionals. By providing this economic assistance, it is our hope that more individuals can pursue careers in health care.
The Provider Workforce Development Initiative is intended to increase access to high-quality, equitable care for members by investing in strategies to close gaps in Orange County’s future health care workforce.
“CalOptima Health recognizes that our mission to serve members begins with having a strong health care workforce to deliver quality care,” said Michael Hunn, CEO of CalOptima Health. “The challenge of health care worker shortages at organizations across Orange County drove CalOptima Health’s landmark community investment in a $50 million Provider Workforce Development Initiative.”
Orange County-based institutions receiving grant awards in the first phase of funding are as follows:
- Cal State Fullerton will receive a $5 million grant to increase concurrent enrollment program admissions and the number of associate degree nursing to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students. The funds will also support an expansion of the BSN program, based on Board of Registered Nursing approval.
- Chapman University will use its grant of $5 million to provide full tuition physician assistant (PA) scholarships for first-year and second-year students in training, and local practice PA education for academically qualified, low-income students.
- Coast Community College District will receive $2.04 million to expand the registered nurse pipeline at Golden West College by 40 students per year and to develop a pathway to the radiologic technology certificate program at Orange Coast College for 30 students per year.
- Concordia University Irvine will receive $5 million in grant funding to expand the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program and provide more scholarships to pre-nursing and ABSN students.
- Orange County United Way will receive a grant of $1.36 million to expand its UpSkill OC program, focusing on gaps within the health care workforce, and provide career coaching, connections to paid training and certification programs, and job placements in the health care industry. An additional 25 clients will be served each year.
- Santiago Canyon College will receive $1.2 million to increase the behavior technician program from 25–50 students to 50–100 students annually. Its medical assistant program will expand from 50 to 175 students annually. The college will develop a licensed vocational nursing curriculum and attain program accreditation to produce more than 60 licensed graduates annually.
- The Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine will be awarded $5 million for a program to provide a one-year externship to prelicensure nursing students and other activities that address Orange County’s shortage of registered nurses.
“Our grants to educational institutions will tackle the problem at its roots by funding training and education for tomorrow’s caregivers for the Medi-Cal population,” explains Hunn. “Closing workforce gaps and building provider diversity is the foundation of health care equity for our members.”