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Dr. Phuong Luu, Bi-County Health Officer for Yuba and Sutter (Calif.) Counties, Recognized with ACAP Leadership in Advocacy Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2026
FOR MORE INFORMATION: ACAP: Marty Johnson, (202) 420-7424; mjohnson@communityplans.net
Partnership HealthPlan of California: Dustin Lyda, (707) 989-0034; press@partnershiphp.org
Dr. Phuong Luu, Bi-County Health Officer for Yuba and Sutter (Calif.) Counties, Recognized with ACAP Leadership in Advocacy Award
WASHINGTON — The Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) today announced Dr. Phuong Luu, who serves as the bi-county health officer for Yuba and Sutter counties (Calif.), to be the winner of its fourteenth annual Leadership in Advocacy Award.
The Leadership in Advocacy Award recognizes individuals whose efforts, on behalf of enrollees in Medicaid, Medicare Duals programs, CHIP, the individual Marketplaces, and other safety net programs clearly exceed the norm and whose actions, in partnership with an ACAP plan, have positively affected the lives of the people they serve.
Dr. Luu’s nomination by Partnership HealthPlan of California (Partnership) was spurred by her implementation of the state’s Justice-Involved Reentry Initiative, a groundbreaking effort to improve health outcomes for previously incarcerated individuals reintegrating back into their communities. People who leave incarceration often return to rural and underserved areas after serving their sentence and overall are disproportionately more likely to suffer from injury, overdose, suicide and chronic conditions — an inequity that is only compounded by disrupted access to care during reentry.
Under Dr. Luu’s leadership, Yuba County became the first county in California to launch its local branch of the Reentry Initiative in 2024. The system of care Dr. Luu established ensures individuals leaving incarceration have Medi-Cal (Medicaid) coverage up to 90 days prior to release as well as accessible connections to behavioral health, primary care and social services upon reentry.
“Dr. Luu represents the very best of leadership in advocacy,” Partnership CEO Sonja Bjork said. “She took a bold, historic policy and transformed it into a working model of care that provides dignity and continuity for justice-involved Medi-Cal members. Her work, particularly in rural communities, shows how strong local leadership can drive statewide progress and advance Medi-Cal’s promise of equitable, whole-person care.”
“We so often talk about and encourage our Safety Net Health Plans to think innovatively when it comes to addressing health inequity within in their communities,” ACAP CEO Margaret A. Murray added. “Dr. Luu’s exemplary advocacy for justice-involved individuals has set a new standard of care not only in Yuba and Sutter counties but the entire state of California — she is well-deserving of ACAP’s Leadership in Advocacy award.”
Dr. Luu received the award during ACAP’s legislative Fly-In in Washington, D.C.
Read more about the award and Dr. Luu at communityplans.net.
ABOUT ACAP
ACAP represents 90 health plans, which collectively provide health coverage to more than 30 million people. Safety Net Health Plans serve their members through Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Marketplace and other publicly-sponsored health programs. For more information, visit communityplans.net.
ABOUT Partnership
Partnership is a community-based, safety-net health care organization that contracts with the state of California to administer Medi-Cal benefits. Partnership provides quality care to about 900,000 Medi-Cal members. Starting in Solano County in 1994, Partnership now serves 24 Northern California counties – Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Marin, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba. Learn more about Partnership at PartnershipHP.org.
ABOUT Justice-Involved Reentry Initiative
The Justice-Involved Reentry Initiative allows eligible Californians who are incarcerated to enroll in Medi-Cal and receive a targeted set of services in the 90 days before their release. This initiative aims to ensure continuity of health care coverage and services between the time they are incarcerated and when they are released. It also provides people who are reentering the community with the prescribed medications and durable medical equipment (DME) they need, and access to programs and services to support this important transition. For more information, visit dhcs.ca.gov.
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