Cal-HOP

The California Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program (Cal-HOP) will provide up to $50 million in state and federal funding to Qualified Health Information Organizations (QHIOs) to support Medi-Cal providers' access and use health information exchange (HIE) technology to improve the quality and effectiveness of care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Cal-HOP will:

Increase the number of Medi-Cal providers that can exchange patient data via a Health Information Organization (HIOs);
Expand the data-exchange capabilities of Medi-Cal providers already participating in HIOs; and
Facilitate Medi-Cal providers' access to the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) prescription drug monitoring database.

Program Description & Provider Requirements

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 provider practices and hospitals.

To be eligible for participation in Cal-HOP, interested provider organizations must hold a valid contract to serve Medi-Cal recipients, demonstrate sufficient staff and technical resources to meet Cal-HOP basic technical milestones, and enter into an agreement with a QHIO to complete onboarding services under the program.

New enrollment under the Cal-HOP program is now closed. All project activity under Cal-HOP has concluded effective September 30, 2021.

The Department has published a list of Health Information Organizations (HIOs) who have met qualification requirements for the Cal-HOP Program and actively participated in the initiative prior to September 2021. A list of professionals and organizations which participated under the Cal-HOP program is also available.

HIO Requirements

The deadline for interested HIOs to participate in the qualification process was set for August 15, 2020. Due to the accelerated time frame to complete implementation of the Cal-HOP program, the Department is no longer able to accept applications from new HIOs seeking consideration as a qualified health information organization (QHIO).

QHIOs which have been accepted as participants in the Cal-HOP program have met previously defined qualification criteria including demonstrated technical capacity to provide onboarding support to providers, support from existing community partners and provider organizations seeking to implement HIE interfaces under Cal-HOP, and current participation in the California Data Use and Reciprocal Sharing Agreement (CalDURSA) and the California Trusted Exchange Network (CTEN). As a condition of their qualification, all QHIOs have demonstrated good standing as California based, not-for-profit organizations.

All QHIO's participating in the Cal-HOP program should submit their final preliminary invoices for completed project work no later than November 15, 2021. The deadline to remediate any deficiencies in the preliminary invoice and submit a final invoice will be set for November 29, 2021. This deadline is intended to ensure all payments under the program can be completed by the end of the calendar year.

Cal-HOP Performance Data

Cal-HOP Performance Dashboard

Cal-HOP Webinars

At the January 8, 2019 “HIE Onboarding and Interoperability Summit” workshop, DHCS provided an overview of Cal-HOP. More information on the Cal-HOP overview held during the HIE Onboarding and Interoperability Summit is available in this Cal-HOP Workshop document.

As a follow up to the workshop, DHCS hosted two webinars to explain and answer questions regarding Cal-HOP requirements, key components, funding and timelines. The slides and transcript from the Webinars are available below.

On February 22, 2019, the Webinar addressed questions from the California Health Information Organizations (HIOs).

Cal-HOP Description & HIO Requirement slides

Cal-HOP Description & HIO Requirement transcript

On March 1, 2019, the Webinar addressed questions from Medi-Cal provider organizations.

Cal-HOP Description & Provider Requirement slides

Cal-HOP Description & Provider Requirement transcript