The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has launched a new effort to boost the use of health information technology by providers.

The California Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program (Cal-HOP) will provide $50 million in funding to Qualified Health Information Organizations (QHIOs) to pay for much of the onboarding costs for providers. Cal-HOP will enable QHIOs to provide direct assistance to individual practices and hospitals that seek to leverage a health information exchange to improve care coordination, engage with public health resources, and enhance patient outcomes through the use of comprehensive clinical data.

Under Cal-HOP, QHIOs will support providers and hospitals in connecting their electronic health records to QHIOs to enable the exchange of admission, discharge, and transfer messages; connect to the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES); and implement advanced data exchange interfaces. The funding provided by Cal-HOP will greatly reduce the cost of onboarding to QHIOs for individual practices and hospitals.

Onboarding opportunities under Cal-HOP will be available through September 2021. Providers are encouraged to contact their local HIOs for further information. A list of participating QHIOs is available online. For more information about program requirements or how to begin enrollment under a QHIO, visit the Cal-HOP webpage or contact DHCS today.

For more information, please contact Cal-HOP at HIEOnboard@dhcs.ca.gov.