Thought Leadership

Scenario Development and Data Exchange Issue Identification  Last week, the Data Exchange Framework Stakeholder Advisory Group convened to continue its important work to develop recommendations for the California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Data Exchange Framework (DxF). The DxF will govern the required exchange of health information by 2024 – impacting hospitals, providers, health plans, and Californians across the state. This was the second of nine scheduled meetings; a recap of the inaugural meeting can be found on our website.  The Advisory Group reviewed the…

The big summer health care budget news was the passage of Assembly Bill 133, which expands Medi-Cal eligibility, improves behavioral health access and requires providers, hospitals and health plans to share complete health records by 2024. The bill underscores the importance of transparency and data. Embedded in this legislation is a new $315 million population health…

Key priorities emerge around ensuring equity and access for all Californians, building on existing infrastructure, and addressing patient privacy and security concerns  This week, the Stakeholder Advisory Group launched its work on the California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Data Exchange Framework pursuant to AB 133, the health trailer bill signed by Governor Newsom in July 2021. The legislation calls for…

One of the lessons from Covid-19 is the dangerous risk for our nation created by the gaping divide between public health and clinical care. With little information about their patients’ vaccination status, how can primary care providers help patients overcome hesitancy or find a place to get vaccinated? With no ability to track post-vaccination health,…

On July 27, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law health care trailer bill AB 133 which aims to transform healthcare for Californians by expanding Medi-Cal eligibility, investing in behavioral health initiatives, and requiring providers and health plans to share data with each other by 2024. AB 133 also requires the creation of a framework…

Since its inception in 2004, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has delivered outsized results for its size. This subdivision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a budget of around $60 million and a team of approximately 150 people — small by federal standards —…

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the health of Californians beyond the virus? What will be the impact of missed medical and preventive care in 2020? How can we catch up quickly? Manifest MedEx, California’s largest nonprofit health information network, completed an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare utilization in California in 2020…

By Dr. Sara Pastoor, Director of Primary Care Advancement, Elation Health, and Adam Harrison, Chief Growth Officer, Manifest MedEx As California reopens, ambulatory medical practices across the state are gearing up for the surge of catch-up care with their patients. There’s a lot of work to do: Californians fell as much as 50% behind on…

By Claudia Williams, Special to CalMatters Claudia Williams is CEO of Manifest MedEx, a nonprofit health data network, Claudia.williams@manifestmedex.org. Disrupting the health care status quo takes courage. Recently, Assemblymember Jim Wood, who chairs the Health Committee, stood up boldly for a statewide infrastructure for sharing health data to strengthen public health, improve equity, transform Medi-Cal, and…

Take an academic, a technologist, a doctor, and a nonprofit leader and what do you get? Agreement that 2021 could be the breakthrough year for interoperability in healthcare. In a lively conversation at the end of last year for the Fierce Health IT Virtual Series, “The future of interoperability—will we ever get there?”, we were…