Health Policy Round Up 5.9.19

On May 9th, Governor Newsom released his revised proposal for the state budget, which includes $20 million to support a five-year expansion of the state’s Whole Person Care pilots and $98 million to expand Medi-Cal to all undocumented, uninsured individuals up to age 25. These revisions reflect Governor Newsom’s emphasis on improving Califonia’s access to mental health services.

Legislative/Regulatory Developments

Funding Opportunities

Recent Policy Hearings and Meetings

Forthcoming Policy Hearings and Meetings

Legislative/Regulatory Developments

California

AB 744 (bill): Would establish payment parity for telehealth for all payers. There no current requirement for payment parity for any payers in California.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing on May 16th

AB 848 (bill): Would require Medi-Cal coverage of blood glucose monitors.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing on May 16th

AB 1494 (bill): Would allow for FQHCs to provide services via telehealth during emergencies without prior in-person visit.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing May 16

AB 1642 (bill): Would require Medi-Cal MCPs to include certain additional information in requests for alternative access standards, including the use of telehealth in alternative access.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing May 16

AB 1676 (bill): Would require all health plans and insurers to cover provider-to-provider tele-mental health consultations via phone or video.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing May 16

SB 66 (bill): Would authorize FQHC and RHC reimbursement for same day billing of two visits in certain situations.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing May 16

SB 612 (bill): Requires health plans, insurers and medical groups to report to OSHPD its participation in activities where enrollees or patients receive comprehensive transitional care supports, including the use of telehealth.

set for Assembly Appropriations hearing May 16

Federal

Appropriations Committee Proposed Bill: Includes HHS funding

would allocate $1M to HRSA for rural hospital telehealth projects

Funding Opportunities

NIH: Use of Technology to Enhance Patient Outcomes and Prevent Illness (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) NIH seeks proposals on the use of technologies, including remote healthcare, that improve patient outcomes. Ongoing standard NIH application dates.

USDA: Distance Leaning & Telemedicine Grants USDA seeking proposals to support SUD morbidity and mortality reduction in high-risk rural communities by expanding prevention, treatment and/or recovery capacities at community, county, state, and/or regional levels. Proposals due 5/15/19.

Recent Meetings

May 7th: Senate HELP Committee: Implementing the 21st Century Cures Act Making Electronic Information Available to Patients and Providers

In accordance with the “vision” of the 21st Century Cures Act, CMS’s proposed Interoperability and Patient Access rule will “empower patients to take charge of and better manage their healthcare,” said Kate Goodrich, CMS CMO and Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, during the hearing.

Upcoming Policy Hearings and Meetings

May 16: Assembly Appropriations bill hearing, including several bills noted above

May 16: Senate Appropriations bill hearing, including several bills noted above

Mike Buhl graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in Systems Engineering and Economics in May of 2016. Mike is currently in his second year with Ernst & Young, where he serves as a technology consultant within the financial services sector. He has consulted for multiple financialinstitutions, including a leading US broker-dealer, a government-sponsored mortgage enterprise, and a banking institution. Mike currently lives in Arlington, Virginia.

During the summer of 2014, Mike was an intern at BluePath Health, which he says was an incredible and valuable experience. He had first-hand experience of the consulting lifestyle, and felt like part of the team. During the summer, he interacted with clients, participated in meetings, took ownership of work products, and learned all about the healthcare industry, telehealth initiatives, and consulting. For one project, he create heat maps and the visualizations of OSHPD specialist data for California counties to highlight specialist needs and pinpoint telehealth opportunities. The skills he gained from his internship still help his career today.

Callie Monroe Watts is currently sophomore at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she majors in economics. She has just been accepted to a study abroad program in London for fall 2018.

Her summer working at BluePath Health was an amazing experience. First of all, she worked under people passionate and knowledgeable about their field, which she found very inspiring. She also increased her understanding of the current health care ecosystem, including its structure, its flaws, and its future. Last but not least, she improved her research and synthesizing skills while collecting data and information about different health care companies.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Wilson is a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is obtaining a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management. During her summer internship with BluePath Health (BPH), she served as a policy analyst for client engagements across both private and public sectors. For a healthcare software startup, she conducted a funding research and strategy analysis that identified key federal and state grant opportunities in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. In addition, for Marin County’s “Marin 9 to 25” youth equity project, she developed a landscape analysis that has informed the project committee’s next steps and recommendations. Lastly, Jackie gained new experience in coalition building through the California Telehealth Policy Coalition, for which she monitored ongoing policy proposals and developed materials for committee meetings and webinars. For these projects, her creative problem-solving, communication, and analytical skills were significant additions to the BPH team.

Prior to starting graduate school, Jackie was a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton where she worked on a variety of compliance, technology, and policy projects for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She also had internships with UnitedHealth Group’s Office of Government Affairs and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in Washington D.C. Her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration is from the University of Notre Dame, where she double-majored in Information Technology Management and Political Science.

Lauren Jacobson joined BluePath Health as a Manager in 2021 with experience in program management, resource development, and communications. Her work focuses on implementing projects for youth health and wellness in Marin County, partnering with community-based organizations, schools, government agencies, health care providers, and funders.

Prior to joining the BluePath Health team, she was a Program Manager for a California safety-net organization, where she oversaw projects for foster care, behavioral health, First 5 centers, and transitional-aged youth (TAY) programs. Her past experience includes developing communications and access strategies at the Foundation for Innovative and New Diagnostics, as well as consulting for CellScope Technologies and Gilead Sciences. She also gained experience in research and data analysis for HIV prevention as a USAID Global Development Fellow for the MatCH Research Institute. Lauren holds a BA in Sociology from Vassar College and a MDP from University of California, Berkeley.

Erika Cerutti has over 20 years of experience in bookkeeping and executive administration for a variety of industries. She brings her combined expertise in technical bookkeeping and professional soft skills to help BluePath Health achieve their objectives.

Managing accounting functions, project schedule coordination, and client service with aplomb, Ms. Cerutti is well-established as an office manager and bookkeeper extraordinaire in Marin County. Skilled at project coordination and developing administrative systems, she also possesses professional empathy and discretion with her background in nursing. Ms. Cerutti began her career as a registered nurse at Berkeley-Orinda Women’s Health and with Marta Spain, M.D., in Greenbrae.

Ms. Cerutti holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Samuel Merritt School of Nursing at Saint Mary’s College. She earned a registered nurse license and public health nurse license, then later obtained a national bookkeeper certification and a certificate of applied accounting.

Ciara Keegan is researcher and grant writer who joined BluePath Health in 2020. During the summer of 2018 as a BPH intern, she worked with the Public Health Department of Marin County’s RxSafe program and also provided research and writing for presentations and reports focused on telehealth and healthcare policies. Now, as a full time BPH team member, she provides high-quality research for projects regarding Medicaid telehealth reimbursement and barriers to telephone and broadband access that low-income Americans face. She is also working on a Marin-based youth wellness project called “Marin 9 to 25”.

She holds a BA in Science, Technology and Society from Brown University, where she studied Science and Society with a focus on Health and Medicine

Adina Safer is a healthcare consultant with more than 20 years of deep industry experience focused on new product development, technology adoption and complex program management. With this experience, she provides clients with a broad understanding of stakeholder positioning among industry leaders, physicians, key academic medical centers and clinics. Her expertise includes addressing market access challenges as well as developing reimbursement and commercialization models for biotech, medical device and digital health companies. Her clients span payers, pharmacy benefit managers and Medicare for whom she drives commercialization. Past experience includes 12 years with CVS as well as work with start-ups, venture capital firms and Fortune 500. She holds a BA from Columbia University and a MBA/MPH from University of California, Berkeley.

Emily Brower Auchard has 20 years of experience providing communications, content strategy and editing services for technology, biotech and health care companies of all sizes. Her work at BluePath Health has included white papers on health IT topics, such as telehealth and health information exchange, and isssue briefs on California health IT policy. She also provides content strategy and development for BluePath Health clients for blogs and social media.

Her previous work in health care includes developing user interface copy for consumer-facing health care technology and producing case studies on health care application design and architecture for companies such as Practice Fusion and MedicaLogic.

While working in the the high-tech industry, she provided communications services for a wide range of technology companies including industry leaders, including Apple, NeXT Computer and Sun Microsystems, as well as many start-ups.

Ms. Auchard holds a B.A. with Honors from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

John Weir has over 18 years of senior management experience in healthcare technology, spanning an array of national and regional initiatives. With a rich history in vendor client services leadership, he has paved the way in EHR and population health management software rollout and integrations, building methodologies and teams focused on client satisfaction and product utilization. He has a keen ability to effectively align technology use with strategies to improve outcomes and quality across the care continuum.

Mr. Weir’s skills include developing large-scale programs and new service lines for both private and government clients and completing many large-scale clinical data integration projects for hospitals and physician organizations. He has provided project management of an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) CMMI grant with 15 healthcare organizations to leverage healthcare data analytics to improve care coordination and population health management. He also led a pioneering EHR adoption program for primary care physicians, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), called DOQ-IT. This program offered insight into technical assistance, financial incentives and EHR systems requirements that could aid CMS in achieving higher EHR adoption rates.

As a client services executive, he has led implementation and account management teams for organizations including Phytel Inc., Allscripts and Lumetra Healthcare Solutions, driving new business and excellent client satisfaction results. As a business leader, he provides strategy development, business planning, and project execution for organizations and is adept at influencing multi-stakeholder groups to ensure team harmonization and delivery of commitments within tight budgets and aggressive deadlines.

John holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in history and political science from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Additionally, he completed graduate-level courses in computing and information systems at University of Ulster in Northern Ireland before starting his career in healthcare technology.

As BluePath Health’s (BPH) Director of Policy, Robby Franceschini supports clients’ strategic needs for health policy, government relations and business development. His expertise encompasses Medi-Cal, telehealth and health information exchange (HIE) and his client experience includes work with foundations, government agencies, health care start-ups and payers. Prior to joining the BPH team, Robby worked with Cleveland Clinic’s legal department and also supported Medi-Cal policy development at the National Health Law Program’s Los Angeles office. He also gained experience in science and technology policy and ethics as an AAAS Emerging Leaders in Science and Society Fellow and research assistant for NIH- and Wellcome Trust-funded projects. He holds a BA, JD and MPH from the University of Washington.

Libby Sagara has deep experience in health care and technology program management, facilitation, business development and communications. Her work focuses on managing clients, teams, technology partners and program funders. Prior to consulting for BluePath Health, she was a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton where she managed projects in health information exchange, strategic and operational planning, life sciences process improvement, and not-for-profit business planning. Libby worked at Manatt Health Solutions, the policy and business advisory division of Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP, where she managed health information exchange planning efforts. Her past experience includes instructional design and technology usability management at BenefitPoint, and change management and communications consulting at Cambridge Technology Partners. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from University of California at Davis.

BluePath Health founder Timi Leslie has worked for more than 20 years with healthcare policy organizations, IT providers and consulting firms. With her “inside the beltway” experience at federal healthcare agencies, Ms. Leslie offers a unique combination of expertise in both national and California health care policy and regulation. She is a recognized expert in health IT and health care policy, analysis and futures, and is frequently asked to join policy committees and to contribute to and speak at industry events.

Ms. Leslie began her career as part of the health care and technology strategy practices at Andersen Consulting and Coopers and Lybrand. She left the consulting industry to lead product management and business development for CareScience’s health information exchange and interoperability division.

After four years at CareScience, Ms. Leslie started a boutique health care consulting firm that later merged with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a legal and health policy firm. Prior to founding BluePath Health, she was a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton where she lead the San Francisco commercial and government health care practice.

Ms. Leslie brings broad-based experience working with public and private boards and executive leadership to her BluePath clients. She has worked with think tanks and policy groups to convene and facilitate summit meetings on health care policy and strategy.

Ms. Leslie is also an expert on the future of health IT. In 2013, she served as a judge for Allscript’s Open App Challenge for which 98 developers entered applications that integrate directly with the company’s EHR software. She is an advisor and judge for the Southern California Health Technology Acceleration Program (HTAP), created in 2011 by the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center at UC San Diego.

She holds a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from University of California at Davis.