CalOptima Health expands street medicine to four Orange County cities

CalOptima Health is expanding its Street Medicine Program to include four additional cities in Orange County: Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and Westminster. This expansion, referred to as the Coastal Cities Continuum, aims to provide a coordinated continuum of care for the unhoused population in these coastal areas.

The program functions as a mobile medical service, delivering primary care, behavioral health, substance-use treatment, and case management directly to individuals in encampments and unsheltered areas. The expansion follows existing operations in Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, and Santa Ana. CalOptima has allocated $4.3 million to initiate the program, with the goal of enrolling 200 patients to achieve self-sustainability through the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative.

Officials noted that the expansion targets a region with an estimated 500 unsheltered individuals. By providing direct medical intervention, the program seeks to reduce emergency department overuse—which currently accounts for up to 10% of local hospital visits for preventable conditions—and create clearer pathways toward permanent housing.