A home care company based in El Segundo is laying off 738 workers effective September 15, after the insurer Health Net decided to eliminate a Medi-Cal benefit that funded their jobs. The company gave employees just 15 days' notice of the mass layoff, far short of the 60 days generally required under California law, though it has pledged to keep paying affected caregivers through October 23.
24 Hour Home Care filed its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, on August 31, according to the Los Angeles Times. The company, headquartered at 200 N. Pacific Coast Highway in El Segundo, operates 15 regional offices across California, Arizona, and Texas, providing non-medical in-home support to seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. Per the New York Post, the company employs roughly 30,000 caregivers across California and is based in Los Angeles.
24 Hour Home Care says it attributed the layoffs directly to Health Net's decision to eliminate Personal Care and Homemaker Services, known as PCHS, and that it was disappointed by the insurer's move while acknowledging the uncertainty it creates for members, caregivers, and families. Health Net issued an official provider notice on August 5 announcing that three Medi-Cal Community Supports programs, including PCHS, will end effective January 1, 2027, and instructed providers to begin transition planning for active members, according to the insurer's own provider library notice.
A Benefit the State's Own Data Called Cost-Effective
PCHS was established as an optional, non-medical support benefit under California's CalAIM Medi-Cal reform framework. A July 2026 evaluation by the California Department of Health Care Services found that the service generated a 58.4% net cost reduction by lowering emergency room visits and hospital admissions among vulnerable patients, per the agency's own findings. Despite that data, Health Net chose to discontinue the benefit anyway, a decision that directly led to the job cuts at 24 Hour Home Care.
Class action law firm Strauss Borrelli PLLC announced on September 1 that it is investigating whether the layoffs violated federal and California WARN Act requirements, since employers are generally required to give 60 days' written notice before mass layoffs. Employers that skip that notice can be held liable for up to 60 days of back pay and benefits owed to affected workers, according to the firm. Whether affected caregivers will ultimately win compensation through that inquiry remains an open question.
Other California Health Employers Are Cutting Too
The 24 Hour Home Care layoffs land amid a wave of other health sector job cuts across the state. John Muir Health announced plans to cut 75 positions on September 1, with affected locations including Walnut Creek, Concord, and Pleasanton, per the Post. Stanford Health Care filed notices in August to lay off 95 people, with cuts primarily hitting non-clinical information technology and digital health roles, while UC Irvine Health cut 150 positions in March as part of a systemwide strategic restructuring.
Sharp HealthCare in San Diego announced plans on August 19 to lay off 168 employees, following a prior reduction of 394 workers in September 2025, the Los Angeles Times reports. Dignity Health laid off 139 employees across two Southern California hospitals effective August 3, with 57 cuts at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and 82 at California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Becker's Hospital Review. Adventist Health eliminated 132 positions across its California facilities in July as part of a statewide plan to centralize administrative, quality, and risk management operations, though it offered alternative internal positions to 109 of those affected, according to MedCity News.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shuttered clinical services across seven locations in March amid a $50 million funding deficit, per the Post. Separately, scheduled wage increases under California's SB 525 healthcare worker minimum wage law took effect July 1, pushing minimum hourly rates up to $25 for large health systems and raising salary thresholds for exempt employees, according to law firm Hooper, Lundy & Bookman.
Health Net's Regulatory Track Record
The insurer behind the benefit elimination has faced state scrutiny before. In February 2026, the California Department of Managed Health Care fined two Health Net subsidiaries a combined $1.3 million after audits found the insurer failed to acknowledge or resolve tens of thousands of provider payment disputes within statutory timeframes, Hoodline previously reported. That penalty included an $850,000 fine against Health Net Community Solutions and $450,000 against Health Net of California.
Beyond the pending WARN Act inquiry, questions remain about how Medi-Cal members who relied on PCHS will transition to county In-Home Supportive Services, and whether other managed care plans will follow Health Net in scaling back optional CalAIM community support coverage. Those questions remain unresolved as the January 2027 cutoff approaches and the September 15 layoffs take effect.
