The California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) has opened its new online portal to allow practices to sign California’s Data Sharing Agreement. The agreement is part of the state’s new Data Exchange Framework meant to improve health information exchange.

Under state law, physician practices and medical groups are required to sign a template Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) by January 31, 2023.

Signing the agreement is one of the first steps in complying with California’s new Data Exchange Framework. The goal of the framework is to create a statewide data sharing agreement to expedite and expand the exchange of information among all health and human services organizations throughout the state.

The DSA is meant to serve as a contract between physician practices, hospitals, health plans, and other health care entities stating that they will make data available to one another upon request. The DSA lays out the parameters of that agreement and outlines what information needs to be exchanged, privacy and security standards, and permitted uses of data.  

The California Medical Association (CMA) has published resources to help members understand the new framework and how it will impact their practices, including:

• A fact sheet that provides background, timelines and a list of frequently asked questions.
• An on-demand webinar about the Data Exchange Framework and how to prepare for it.

Both of these resources are free to CMA members only.