Op-Ed: Health Equity for Patients Starts With Digital Equity for Providers

California has made progress building health data networks across the state for years now — data systems that securely deliver information on your medications, health history, and hospitalizations in real time between your different healthcare providers (imagine never having to fill out that clipboard before your medical appointment again!). While those technology systems are significantly better than they were 10 years ago, they remain fragmented, often leaving behind the under-resourced, less technologically sophisticated providers; social service and community organizations; and public health agencies.

Fortunately, the state has recognized how critical health data infrastructure is for achieving CalHHS’s vision for “A Healthy California for All” and provided the tailwinds we need to propel us toward a more robust and seamless health data infrastructure for the entire state. Starting January 2024, most healthcare organizations in California, including health plans, will be required to exchange health information with each other. We believe the best way to enable such broad-scale data sharing on such an aggressive timeline is to invest in and leverage the many California nonprofit community health information organizations (HIOs) that are purpose-built for and already doing this work across every county.

Read the article by Erica Galvez, Chief Executive Officer, Manifest MedEx, and Ali Modaressi, Chief Executive Officer, Los Angeles Network for Enhanced Services (LANES), published in State of Reform.