BRIDGE POLICY AND INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE
We partner with the organizations working where Medicaid, Medicare, and federal-to-local health transformation intersect, turning policy into delivery that reaches people. From managed care plan contracting and community-based care models to rural health and dual-eligible (D-SNP) integration.
Jim Hickman,
Founder & Chief Catalyzer
CalAIM Subject Matter Expert · Senior Advisor and California field lead for the Camden Coalition · Venture Partner, Suncoast Ventures
OUR PRACTICE
Health & Healthcare Technology Practice
We support innovators and growth companies scaling across Medicaid, Medicare, and federal health transformation programs—translating policy mandates into operational reality. Our work spans CalAIM Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports, managed care plan contracting and value-based care strategy, dual-eligible (D-SNP) care integration, federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) implementation, and the technology infrastructure that connects fragmented care delivery into coordinated systems focused on population health.
Clinical Advisory Practice
We bring clinical truth alongside policy fluency. Our Senior Clinical Advisory bench—anchored in safety-net delivery, clinical informatics, applied AI, and federal rural health advisory work—sits with health-system, FQHC, IPA, and managed care plan medical leadership through the workflow change that determines whether policy reaches a patient. Where care delivery meets policy, infrastructure, and capital.
Nonprofit & Philanthropy Practice
We help mission-driven organizations align resources and strategy for faster, greater impact—coalition-building, communications strategy, program design, and operational execution across complex civic and community environments. Together we craft plans that are strategic, focused, and nimble, with the discipline to make impactful decisions and the flexibility to adapt as conditions shift.
OUR SERVICES
We help our clients move from perfecting individual pieces of the whole to orchestrating broader ecosystems of care. We balance vision with implementation—pairing policy fluency with operational pattern recognition to deliver measurable transformation across Medicaid, Medicare, and federal health programs.
1
Strategy & Implementation
CalAIM and Medi-Cal market entry strategy
Managed care plan contracting and value-based care design
Federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) planning and technical assistance
Section 1115 demonstration waiver implementation
Dual-eligible (D-SNP) and Medicare Advantage alignment
2
Clinical & Care Delivery Advisory
Clinical workflow alignment for CalAIM ECM and Community Supports
Health information technology and applied AI strategy
Safety-net and FQHC implementation support
Founder enablement for health technology companies entering safety-net markets
3
Capital & Growth
Venture diligence and portfolio support across Medicaid-exposed health technology
Payer traction strategy for Series Seed through Series A growth companies
Managed care plan contracting and county system validation pathways
Exit optionality and commercial readiness positioning
4
Orchestration & Partnership
Multi-stakeholder alignment across counties, plans, and community partners
Coalition-building and program coordination
Communications strategy and media advocacy
Competency sourcing—flexing the team and tapping the network as engagements require
WAYS TO PARTNER
Every engagement starts with readiness and is co-designed from there. Three ways we tend to work together.
Navigate
Strategic advisory for organizations finding their footing. We translate policy into a clear set of moves, with the field intelligence to know which ones matter now.
Build
Everything in Navigate, plus active business development and contract acceleration. We are in the room for the partnership meetings and the contract that closes.
Orchestrate
Full strategy and hands-in implementation across plans, counties, and community partners. The deep engagement that turns a proof of concept into a system.
Not sure which fits? That is what the Readiness Assessment is for.
FIELD NOTES
On-the-ground dispatches from California's Medicaid transformation.
CalAIM Field Notes is the practitioner's working notebook for California's Medicaid transformation—weekly dispatches read by 4,000+ managed care plan executives, community-based organization leaders, and county health officers building the system. Published Thursdays on Substack.
Each issue surfaces the pattern recognition from live implementation work—what's working in the field, what's stuck, and what the next move is for the operators, plans, and policymakers shaping California's Medicaid future.