MX June Newsletter

A monthly roundup of news and updates from MX

June 2022 Edition

Save the Date!


Save the date for our upcoming webinar on Thursday, July 28 from 12 pm – 1 pm PDT.

COVID-19 has highlighted the deep disparities in health and health access plaguing our communities. It has also underscored that data gaps perpetuate inequities and block progress. Improving health equity requires quicker insights and better data. To address these issues, and succeed in California’s bold Medicaid transformation plans, we will need deeper integration, more seamless transitions, and faster intervention, all enabled by sharing, integrating, and using data in new ways and at scale.

What’s working? Where are the challenges? How do we move forward in California at this pivotal moment in time, with CalAIM underway and the AB 133 requirements to share data just around the corner?

Join us for this timely and important discussion with our panel of experts:

  • Abner Mason, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, SameSky Health (moderator)
  • Adimika Arthur, Executive Director, Health Tech4 Medicaid
  • Lakshmi Dhanvanthari, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Health Plan of San Joaquin
  • Karen Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, The Steinberg Institute

You can register and share the link to the webinar here. We look forward to seeing you there!

MX Welcomes New Participants

MX welcomes Collaborative Care, a part of the Optum family of doctors and neighborhood clinics across California, to the MX network! We will work together to help provide information to the OptumHealth HIE (OH-HIE) enabling an integrated and connected experience across the OptumCare healthcare ecosystem. The right information at the right time results in better decision-making and planning for both providers and patients.
We're also excited to announce Clever Care Health Plan (CCHP) has joined the MX Network! CCHP was founded to help the members of the communities they serve to understand the complexities of their health care. CCHP is dedicated to providing culturally sensitive health care solutions that offer their members better access to the services they need in the language they understand. They offer Medicare Advantage plans in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties that connect the benefits of Eastern and Western medicine.

Data Exchange Framework Stakeholder Advisory Meeting Recap

At last month's meeting of the Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Stakeholder Advisory Group, members discussed the latest draft of the Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) and initial policies and procedures (P&Ps) from the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS). CalHHS also presented an update on proposed funding related to health data sharing in the May Revision to the Governor’s Budget.

MX is encouraged that the revised DSA recognizes the crucial role of Qualified HIOs in supporting provider and health plan compliance with data sharing requirements. Now CalHHS must rapidly establish the process and requirements for qualifying HIOs. It is critical to identify Qualified HIOs as soon as possible so that providers and health plans can select a partner and execute an agreement well in advance of deadlines.

For more on the May meeting, please check out our recap on our website, and check back for our recap of the final meeting held last week.

Participant Bright Spot

Garden Pediatrics is a pediatric practice serving the Inland Empire area, providing care for approximately 40 to 50 PPO and Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) patients under the age of 21 every day. Their patients are also seen at local specialty clinics, urgent care centers, and hospitals in the area, many of whom participate and share health information through Manifest MedEx (MX) as a result of IEHP’s innovative hospital and provider incentive programs. These programs encourage health data sharing among healthcare organizations in the Inland Empire through the MX data network.

Garden Pediatrics joined the MX health data network in 2021 as a participant in the California Department of Health Care Services’ Cal-HOP program, which provided grant funding to Medi-Cal providers to onboard Qualified Health Information Organizations with the goal of improving the quality and effectiveness of care coordination for Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

Learn how this pediatric practice reduces chart chasing and streamlines post-discharge follow-up and vaccine redistribution with Manifest MedEx on our website.

A Letter from Claudia Williams

Dear Friends,

As my time wraps up at Manifest MedEx, I’ve been reflecting on all that we’ve accomplished and the opportunities that lie ahead.

My career has focused on building transformative systems for healthcare change. And that is what we have built together over the last five years. Manifest MedEx is an innovative, impactful non-profit health data utility serving more than 32 million Californians — and a network of over 125 hospitals, 12 health plans and 1,500 ambulatory partners — poised to be an engine of transformation for healthcare in California.

We’re at a moment of real strength and opportunity. Manifest MedEx is delivering nearly 1.5 million real-time hospital encounter alerts (ADTs) each month — crucial information that supports care coordination for patients most in-need. The Governor’s ambitious CalAIM initiative and public health modernization plans will be fueled by the type of accurate and timely population health data that Manifest MedEx provides. And California’s Data Exchange Framework, which goes into effect in January 2023, will provide needed policy impetus for broad data sharing across the state. It is exciting to envision where we will be a year from now.

We have all chosen sacred roles supporting health. Some of us care for individuals and communities. Some, like me, build systems and infrastructure. Through these roles, we have an intimate view of all that is hopeful and all that is deeply broken in America today. Let us not be observers. Let us be bold agents of change. My dearest hope is that Manifest MedEx will be a platform for rapid momentum towards the future of health, connectedness, self-determination, and equity our families and communities urgently need.

Many of you have asked, what’s next in my career? For the next few months, I will be on sabbatical, taking a cue from Jerry Colonna: “sabbatical is a time of thinking differently, of considering things differently.” I am reading and reflecting on systems change, emergence and leadership at mid-life. I will also be traveling, writing, and spending lots of time with family and friends.

After that, I will be launching a new chapter of my career building transformative systems for healthcare change. I’m not sure what that will be yet but look forward to connecting with all of you to explore what is emerging and needed today.

I am so grateful to the team at Manifest MedEx, our Board, and our partners across the entire state, for the incredible progress we have made since 2017. The organization is in wonderful hands with Erica Galvez as interim CEO, and I have deep confidence in the amazing Manifest MedEx team.

While I am leaving my role at the end of this month, I will be with all of you in spirit as you continue this important work forward.

Thank you,

Welcome to the MX Team!

We're delighted to welcome Leslie Goodyear-Moya, MBA, MA, to the MX team! Leslie is a public health professional with experience in geographic information systems, systems improvement, and health equity program development. She comes to us from HealthNet's Cultural and Linguistics Services Department, where she developed and implemented a health equity framework, managed cultural competency training programs for staff, and provided oversight for the collection of REL/SOGI/SDOH data.

Leslie has over 10 years of experience in health care with a focus on health equity and making data accessible and actionable. She will be helping us define and shape several strategic initiatives, including advancing our work to support the health plan implementation of CalAIM. We are so excited to welcome her to the MX family!

News and Events

Op-Ed: California needs clinical data to see the most vulnerable

Accessing health care in California can be a hurdle in itself. For our low-income, unhoused and vulnerable citizens, many of whom make up the 14 million Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal, finding and returning regularly to a usual source of care can be challenging. In my region of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, about 30% of our population live in an official Health Professional Shortage Area. People residing in the high desert and other communities may not be seen and supported when it matters most for their health.

Our state’s policy reforms have set out to repair this. The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) issued a draft of their Population Health Management Strategy and Roadmap, and have emphasized the health and well-being of people through prevention, early identification and optimization. It’s a big step forward in the right direction, and we’re excited to see the state make this important investment. And to make this work and implement the vision of DHCS, we must harness the opportunity to act on the promise of a longitudinal patient record.

Read the full article by Jarrod McNaughton, CEO, Inland Empire Health Plan and Chairman of the Board, Manifest MedEx, published in State of Reform.

Network Growth

June Image (1)

New data sources available on MX today:

ADTs from the following 4 participants:

Fontana Physicians Associates, A Medical Corporation
James J. Wu Medical Corp
Sunrise Medical Group
Valerie C. Altavas, M.D., A.M.C.

CCDAs from the following 6 participants:

Dignity Health (2 locations)
Sunrise Medical Group
Valerie C. Altavas, M.D., A.M.C.
Fontana Physicians Associates A Medical Corporation
James J. Wu Medical Corp

Lab data from the following 52 participants:

Anupama Sharma, M.D., Inc. (2 locations)
Aria Community Health Center (22 locations)
Arturo Quintanilla MD
Aspen Pediatric Clinic, Inc.
Bella Vista E.N.T. & Facial Plastic Surgery
Central Pediatrics Medical Group
Comcare Primary Medical Group (2 locations)
Ezzat Nashed, M.D.
Filomena S. Pascual, M.D., Inc.
Gabriel T. Fabella, M.D., Inc.
Infinity Medical Group
Inland Behavioral And Health Services, Inc.

Jiffry Medical Corporation
Kay Mukergee M.D.
Kids Health First Pediatrics, Inc.
Preferred Medical Group (2 locations)
Progressive OB/Gyn Medical Group, Inc.
San Sebastian Family Medical Group (2 locations)
Sarasa Kumar, M.D., Inc.
Shima Hadidchi, M.D., A Professional Corporation
Sukhdev K. Uppal, M.D., Inc.
Sunrise Medical Group
The Children's Doctor
Theodore Gerard A Caspe, M.D., a Medical Corp
VO Medical Center (3 locations)

Have questions or want to learn more? We're here to help. Reach out.

We want to hear from you! Let us know how we're doing.