October 1, 2020 – Yesterday the five-year California Department of Health Care Services technical assistance program (CTAP) ended.  Under CTAP, CalHIPSO assisted more than 4,500 Eligible Professionals (EP) in navigating the various stages of Meaningful Use.  Under the previous federal Regional Extension Center (REC) program, CalHIPSO assisted more than 7,500 EPs.  In collaboration with CalHIPSO’s Local Extension Center (LEC) partners, we have helped California health care organizations and individual clinicians earn more than $300,000,000 in federal incentives.

CalHIPSO was founded in 2010 by the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH), the California Primary Care Association (CPCA), and the California Medical Association (CMA). Since inception, CalHIPSO has helped the California safety net navigate the complicated world of electronic health record adoption.

It has taken more than ten years, yet we are perhaps only halfway to achieving the triple aim:  improving the patient experience and outcomes, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare.  CalHIPSO plans to continue to be a catalyst in empowering care with technology, to continue to be a resource to its founding partners and their member organizations, and a resource to the California safety net.  With the success of high adoption and the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) technology under our belts, we can now pivot to supporting California healthcare organizations achieve interoperability.  With true interoperability, the transition to value-based care will be smoother and the triple aim will be attainable.

During the last quarter of this year, CalHIPSO will be closing out the administrative portions of the CTAP and transition to becoming a program under one of its founders, CPCA, as opposed to being a stand-alone organization.  As a CPCA program, CalHIPSO will be able to continue its mission and will continue to collaborate with its other founding partners (CAPH and CMA) on health information technology (HIT) initiatives.

This announcement is made today by CalHIPSO’s Interim Executive Director DeeAnne McCallin and CalHIPSO’s Board President Robert Beaudry.  McCallin would like to thank CalHIPSO’s Board of Directors, its founding partner organizations, LEC partners, and CalHIPSO staff for their collective work towards achieving the triple aim over the past decade.  It has been exciting to lead the successful REC & CTAP programs.  Many who started with the CalHIPSO REC continue to work today on things that are helping California respond to the COVID pandemic – telehealth, health information exchange, electronic registry reporting, and quality improvement to name a few.  Beaudry looks forward to assisting CalHIPSO with its transition on becoming a CPCA program so that CalHIPSO may continue its mission to transform health care delivery through the effective use of technology.