In September 2020, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) launched a new effort to boost the use of health information technology by providers. The California Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program (Cal-HOP) committed $50 million to help more practices participate in health information exchanges (HIEs) by reducing or eliminating of the obstacle of paying for the interface between their EHR and the HIE. 

This funding opportunity expires in September 2021, so it is important that practices get the process started ASAP to take advantage of this opportunity.

Cal-HOP will enable HIEs 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, Qualified Health Information Organizations (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.

Providers are encouraged to contact their local HIOs for more 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.