Department of Health Care Services Reorganization

Effective July 1, 2007, certain responsibilities held by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) were transferred to the new California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The CDPH was created by Senate Bill (SB) 162 within the existing Health and Human Services Agency. At the same time, DHCS was renamed as the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

Benefits to reorganizing DHCS into CDPH and DHCS include:

• Providing more focused leadership in public health and health care financing at the state level
• Streamlining management of complex program components along functional lines
• Creating a more effective public health infrastructure in California resulting in decreased illness, injury and death rates
• Providing greater protection for California residents in the event of an act of bioterrorism or other major public health emergency
• Increasing accountability, responsiveness, effectiveness and transparency for the public health and health care purchasing functions of state government
• Providing visibility on important health care issues for providers, local health departments, federal government, the legislature, advocates, the press and the general public
• Recruiting and retaining top quality staff for the new departments

Current day-to-day operations will continue under both CDPH and DHCS. For more information about the DHCS reorganization, including organization charts and frequently asked questions, visit the DHCS Reorganization page of the DHCS Web site.

New e-mail addresses, Web links, mailing addresses and other information necessary to communicate with the CDPH and DHCS programs will be posted on the "DHCS Reorganization" page.