MX March Newsletter

A monthly roundup of news and updates from MX

March 2022 Edition

Announcing Leadership Changes at MX

“I am grateful to the team at Manifest MedEx, to our Board, and to our partners across the entire state, for the incredible progress we have made since 2017. I am excited to see the growth and impact MX will achieve in the years ahead." - Claudia Williams

Claudia Williams has decided to step down from her role as CEO at Manifest MedEx at the end of June after a successful five-year tenure building and leading the organization. The Board of Directors has named COO Erica Galvez, who also joined MX in 2017, as Interim CEO starting July 1, 2022. Claudia will be taking a well-earned sabbatical before embarking on new opportunities.

We wish Claudia all the best and thank her for her years of inspiring leadership that helped us grow our health data network throughout California.

Read the full announcement here.

Participant Bright Spot

The Inland Empire Foundation for Medical Care (IEFMC) is one of the most comprehensive preferred provider organization (PPO) networks in Southern California, comprising of 2,000 physicians, ancillary providers, and 27 hospitals in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Organized by IEFMC, the Foundation Accountable Care Network (FACN)® is a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO, a voluntary Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) alternative payment model that encourages groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers to come together and provide coordinated, high-quality care to their Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. As a Shared Savings Program ACO, FACN is accountable for the quality, cost, and experience of care for their assigned Medicare FFS beneficiary population.

Learn how FACN ACO achieved a 39.4% reduction in patient readmissions post-discharge, a 3.1% reduction in ER visits, and a 5.3% reduction in ER visits leading to hospitalizations with MX tools in our latest case study on our website.

Data Exchange Framework Stakeholder Advisory Recap

Earlier this month, the Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Stakeholder Advisory Group, the California Health and Humans Services Agency (CalHHS) aimed to present a proposed governance model for overseeing DxF implementation. Manifest MedEx joined other Advisory Group members to urge clarity on resolving the Framework’s contents before diving into governance.

For Manifest MedEx, the meeting surfaced several “do’s and don’ts” that echo our recent letter of concerns to CalHHS on the draft Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). Our perspective also tracks the Advisory Group’s discussion with the meeting’s special guest: Micky Tripathi, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Read our recap on our website.

With only three Stakeholder Advisory Groups remaining on the calendar, we hope to accelerate the review of the DSA and important conversations with key stakeholders about funding to incentivize the real, working data exchange needed for California.

The Advisory Group convenes next on April 7, 2022, from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. We invite you to follow @ManifestMedEx on Twitter for live tweets, share your thoughts, and stay tuned for more updates!

Enact Quality Incentives and Infrastructure This Year (EQUITY)

Manifest MedEx is proud to be part of a broad coalition of more than 20 health plans, provider groups, and HIEs requesting $95 million in the state budget this year and ongoing investments enhanced by federal matching funds to accelerate provider data sharing and support the critical HIE data infrastructure we need for Medi-Cal transformation.

The investment requested in the proposal, Medi-Cal Data Sharing: Enact Quality Incentives and Infrastructure This Year (EQUITY), will make possible:

Performance payments for Medi-Cal providers that join and share data with qualified health information organizations (HIOs) and provide resources and motivation for small physician practices, behavioral health and safety-net clinics, skilled nursing facilities, county health and human services, and hospitals to join and share data with HIOs.
Funding for qualified HIOs to build and maintain the health data infrastructure needed for California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) to succeed; reforms to the Medi-Cal delivery system will falter without the timely data necessary to coordinate care, improve quality, fill prevention gaps, identify high-risk patients and address disparities.

With this funding, qualified HIOs will connect to Medi-Cal providers’ electronic health records and aggregate and clean clinical data to support CalAIM and other Medi-Cal activities, including enhanced care management, community supports, behavioral health system modernization, quality improvement, and population health management. The California Department of Healthcare Services can draw down enhanced federal matching funds for this work, furthering the reach of state dollars.

These two initiatives will address the substantial data gaps identified by CalHHS in December 2021—including organizations’ capacity to store, electronically share, and use health and human service information. The next few weeks will include additional legislative and administrative meetings, outreach and advocacy, and the development of draft trailer bill language.

You can read the full budget letter here. If you have any questions, please contact Bernadette Sullivan or Tiffany Mathews for more information.

News and Events

Learning from Inland Empire - A Roadmap for Healthcare Transformation in CA

We are a few days away from our upcoming webinar on Thursday, March 31 from 12 pm – 1 pm PDT.

With all eyes on CalAIM and California’s pressing public health and health equity challenges, learn how Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) and other Inland Empire stakeholders are preparing to seize this opportunity for healthcare transformation, where there is near-universal data sharing among hospitals throughout the region.

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

Claudia Williams, CEO, Manifest MedEx (moderator)
Dolores Green, Executive Director, Riverside County Medical Association; CEO, Inland Empire Foundation for Medical Care; CEO, Inland Empire Health Information Organization (IEHIO)
Ed Juhn, M.D., Chief Quality Officer, Inland Empire Health Plan
Judi Nightingale, DrPH, RN, Director, Population Health, Riverside University Health System

You can register and share the link to the webinar here. We look forward to seeing you there!
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2022 Northern California State of Reform Health Policy Conference

Manifest MedEx's Vice President of Public Health Innovation, Mimi Hall, participated as a panelist in a discussion on "Turning Data into Actionable Data Information" at the 2022 Northern California State of Reform Health Policy Conference. The collection of health data is one piece of the puzzle, but utilizing that data in an effective way is another key consideration. How can we use the health data collected from Californians to advance health equity, address the social determinants of health, and improve care quality?

Email us at info@manifestmedex.org for a copy of the presentation and gain insight into this conversation!
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ViVE 2022

Earlier this month, Claudia Williams, CEO at Manifest MedEx served as a panelist in a discussion on "“The Complicated Convergence of Clinical & Claims Data" at ViVE 2022. Integrating claims and clinical data can drive equitable reimbursement, improved consumerism, better risk adjustment, and targeted population and health management.

If you missed this session, ViVE 2022 attendees can view the live recording here.

Network Growth

New data sources available on MX today:

ADTs from the following participant:

Hi-Desert Medical Center

CCDAs from the following 5 participants:

Arrowhead Family Health Center (4 locations)
East Bay Center for Digestive Health

Lab data from the following participant:

Internal Medicine Specialists Medical Group, Inc.

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

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