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Data Sharing Incentive

The Alliance’s Data Sharing Incentive (DSI) program offers up to $40,000 in financial assistance to Alliance providers (with the exception of hospitals) for participating in active data sharing via Health Information Exchange (HIE).
The incentive aims to support providers to:

Meet the mandatory California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) Data Exchange Framework (DxF) statewide requirements. This requires providers to respond to requests from other health care entities in real time by facilitating HIE connectivity activities.
Provide timely data submission to their local HIO (specific data elements and target measures differ by provider type).

Data sharing is a key component of the Alliance’s Strategic Plan and significantly contributes to achieving CalAIM goals and our strategic priorities of health equity and person-centered delivery system transformation.

DSI eligibility

To be eligible for the incentive, providers must:

Be part of a currently eligible provider type. See the DSI schedule by provider type below.
Operate in one of the Alliance service areas.
Use an electronic health records (EHR) system.

If an individual provider is part of an umbrella provider group, only the umbrella provider group managing the EHR will be eligible for the incentive.

DSI participation requirements

To participate in the DSI and earn payments, providers will be required to:

First, complete and submit a DSI Interest Form. To do so, email [email protected] for a copy of the form and submit the completed form to the same email.
After you complete the DSI Interest Form, Alliance staff will email you a Data Sharing Incentive Agreement (LOA) to review and sign.
Sign the California Health and Human Services Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). Please check the DSA Signatory List to see if your organization has signed the agreement.
Sign a participation agreement with the Serving Communities Health Information Organization (SCHIO), the HIE that serves Alliance providers. Once enrolled in the DSI program, incentive payments will be made based on submitting qualifying data directly to SCHIO.

Once all these documents have been signed and accepted, you will have completed Milestone 1. This will trigger your first incentive payment.

More information about participation steps and eligibility timelines is outlined in the following sections.

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Data Sharing Incentive (DSI) Interest Form

Providers will fill out the DSI Interest Form to express their interest in participating in the DSI program. The Alliance will use the form to determine eligibility to participate in the program. The form includes questions about your EHR system. Please email [email protected] with “DSI Interest Form” in the subject line to receive and complete the form.

Data Sharing Incentive Agreement with the Alliance

Once the Alliance receives your DSI Interest Form and confirms your eligibility, we will email you a Data Sharing Incentive (DSI) Agreement, also called a “letter of agreement” (LOA).

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) with the state

All participating providers are required to sign the DSA as outlined in California Health and Safety Code § 130290.

The DSA ensures that Californians, as well as the health and human service and governmental entities who serve them, can access information needed to provide safe and effective care regardless of their location in the state.

The CalAIM Data Sharing Authorization Guidance published by DHCS supports data sharing between:

Managed care plans (MCPs).
Health care providers.
Community-based social and human service providers.
Local health jurisdictions.
County and other public agencies that provide services and manage care under CalAIM.

Read the full guidance on the DHCS website.

The DxF advances health equity for all Californians by facilitating the secure and appropriate exchange of health and social services information. The DxF will address areas including but not limited to:

Health information creation, including the use of national standards in clinical documentation, health plan records and social services data.
Translation, mapping, controlled vocabularies, coding and data classification.
Storage, maintenance and management of health information.
Linking, sharing, exchanging and providing access to health information.

For more background information, refer to APL 23-013 on our APL page.

DSI schedule by provider type

The DSI Program will roll out in phases by provider type.

Eligible Provider Type	Participation Open	Deadline to Sign Alliance Agreements	Complete Milestone 1	Data Sharing Starts
Long-term care (LTC) facilities (not including long-term acute care hospitals, or LTACHs). Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).	January 2024	April 1, 2024	Sept. 30, 2024	Oct. 1, 2025
Primary care providers (including pediatric PCPs).	July 2024	Oct. 1, 2024	Dec. 31, 2024	Jan. 1, 2025
Specialists (including non-PCP pediatric providers, OB-GYNs, cardiologists, etc.).	April 1, 2025	July 1, 2025	Sept. 30, 2025	Oct. 1, 2025
Behavioral health providers.	Oct. 2025	Jan. 1, 2026	March 31, 2026	April 1, 2026
Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports providers.	April 2026	July 1, 2026	Sept. 30, 2026	Oct. 1, 2026

DSI Interest Forms may be submitted as soon as participation opens. DSA agreements with the state may be completed at any time. For more information on the DSA, please see the Data Exchange Framework webpage.

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have other questions about the DSI program, you can also watch our DSI Information Sessions:

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What are Milestones?

Milestone 1 is accomplished after you have signed all three initial documents. After that, the following Milestones are completed on a quarterly schedule, when data is captured by SCHIO and validated by the Alliance.

Why is the Alliance transitioning to HIEs?

Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) specialize in data connectivity to disparate systems. By transitioning to data connectivity via HIEs, the Alliance will be better positioned to focus on analyzing and actioning the data that is collected.

We already granted the Alliance access to our EHR during our site reviews. Why do we need to do it again for the DSI program?

Whereas providers previously gave the Alliance direct access to a provider’s EHR system, the Alliance’s DSI program now incentivizes providers to share data via a third-party Health Information Exchange (HIE).

Can the provider sign the CalHHS Data Sharing Agreement now?

Absolutely. California providers are required to sign this agreement to share patient information safely. If your organization has not signed this agreement yet, please do so at the DSA portal.

Once all the necessary agreements are signed and submitted by the provider’s respective due date (to be determined during agreement execution), this will initiate the first payment of $10,000.

What is the earning/payment schedule?

DSI participants may earn up to $40,000 in incentive dollars.

The first Milestone for all provider types is associated with a $10,000 incentive amount and is achieved when a participant completes LOAs, SCHIO partnership agreement and DxF agreements.

Subsequent milestone payments will be made on a quarterly schedule, based on validated submissions specific to your provider type. Data captures for validation will be made between January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December. Your specific starting quarter will be based on the Data Sharing start date associated with your provider type.

Participants will be eligible to continue earning so long as the maximum of $40,000 has not been reached.

What constitutes a valid data submission?

Program participants in the first cohort (SNFs and non-LTACH LTCs) may earn $400 for each timely submission to SCHIO of a complete Admit, Discharge or Transfer (ADT) file for an Alliance member. This includes any associated Observation Results (ORU) such as EKG, (electrocardiogram) labs, imaging studies or pharmacy orders (RDE). This complete file is referred to as a “combined ADT/RDE/ORU” in the Letter of Agreement. Timely is defined as within 72 hours of a qualifying event, i.e. an Admit, Discharge or Transfer.

Program participants in the second cohort (PCPs, including Pediatric PCPs) may earn up to $10,000 per quarter when minimum thresholds of member data submissions to SCHIO are met. To earn milestone payments (maximum of $10,000 per quarter), providers must submit a minimum of 75% of the longitudinal records associated with Alliance Members in the first period (Milestone 2), 90% in the second period (Milestone 3) and 95% in the third period (Milestone 4).

Specific data for other provider types is forthcoming.

Will providers receive incentive dollars for sharing non-Alliance member data?

No. Providers only earn incentive dollars for each data submission related to an Alliance member.

Will provider groups that use one shared EHR system for multiple DSI provider types be invited to participate in future DSI rounds?

Yes, provider groups that use one shared EHR system for multiple DSI provider types (for example, PCPs and specialists) will be invited to participate in future DSI rounds. The Alliance is requesting different types of data in varying formats to be shared with local HIEs based on provider type.

Will the data sharing be permanent?

Providers will be incentivized to share data with SCHIO for the duration of the agreement and encouraged to continue sharing data over the long term. This supports CalAIM goals and the Alliance’s strategic priorities of health equity and person-centered delivery system transformation.

Do providers have to select Serving Communities (SCHIO) as their qualified health information organization (QHIO) with the DxF to receive the Alliance DSI?

Yes, SCHIO is the HIE that serves Alliance providers. To enroll in the DSI program, providers must sign a participation agreement with SCHIO. Once enrolled in the DSI program, incentive payments will be made based on submitting qualifying data directly to SCHIO.

What if we don't use an EHR system?

If you are interested in setting up an EHR, we might be able to help! The Data Sharing Support Program is designed to help providers build capacity for data sharing and applications are currently being accepted.