OeHI Connects - January 2019
Colorado's Health IT Roadmap- 2019
The start of a new year is an opportunity to set new goals and aspirations, reflect about the past year and determine the best path forward. In 2018, the Office of eHealth Innovation (OeHI) and the eHealth Commission officially launched Colorado’s Health IT Roadmap with the support of communities and stakeholders. With this support and the leadership from OeHI and the eHealth Commission, funding was requested and appropriated by the State of Colorado and federal funding was requested from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to secure American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Health Information Technology (ARRA HITECH) funds to begin planning and implementation efforts. Efforts are underway to officially launch OeHI's project management office (PMO) in partnership with the Governor's Office of Information Technology. Job postings for project management positions will be coming soon!

The Office of eHealth Innovation and the eHealth Commission are moving boldly forward to advance other Roadmap domains as well. Several workgroups have launched to help define scope and prioritize initiative efforts. These workgroups are focused on care coordination for the whole person (health and social); advancing Colorado's regional health information exchanges (HIEs) - Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) and Quality Health Network (QHN) - and state data sharing efforts; defining requirements for consumer engagement and empowerment projects; and working with state agencies and community partners to align and harmonize how the state uses unique individual and provider identity to better support case management and care coordination. Data governance and electronic Clinical Quality Measurement (eCQM) initiatives are also top priorities and OeHI will be working closely with state agencies, clinicians, payers, and community members to support and expand projects underway. 

As OeHI and the eHealth Commission move boldly into the new year, it's important to acknowledge everyone's contribution, leadership, and commitment to achieving the aim of Colorado's Health IT Roadmap. And special thanks to Mary Anne Leach for her contributions to OeHI! Although she has moved on to pursue other opportunities and take a quick break to truly enjoy Colorado's ski season, she remains engaged and in support of efforts. Carrie Paykoc, OeHI's Interim Director and State Health IT Coordinator, appreciates Mary Anne's work to set up the office for success. Carrie is actively leading conversations with the Polis Administration to execute Roadmap work and is enthusiastic about the year ahead. When asked about new and ongoing plans for health care cost reduction, she replied "Without access to health information, enhanced health information exchange, updated policy, innovation and governance, cost savings in health care will be difficult to achieve. By leveraging Colorado's Health IT Roadmap and other state and community efforts, Colorado will be able to make a lasting impact."

For more information on Roadmap initiatives visit OeHI's website , email Carrie Paykoc (Carrie.Paykoc@state.co.us) and download a copy of Colorado's Health IT Roadmap toda y!
Spotlight on Roadmap Initiatives
This Health IT Roadmap initiative is focused on developing and implementing tools to educate, engage and empower consumers in their health and well-being.
The Office of eHealth Innovation has partnered with Mosaica Partners to further its Health IT Roadmap initiative of promoting and enabling consumer engagement, empowerment and health literacy. Based on the exhaustive methodology used to develop the Colorado Health IT Roadmap , OeHI and Mosaica Partners completed over 20 stakeholder interviews and officially launched the consumer engagement workgroup.

As part of this process, OeHI is reaching out for any information, tools, research, and efforts completed to date regarding consumer engagement and empowerment in Colorado. Please send details to Carrie Paykoc via email at carrie.paykoc@state.co.us.

The next part of this process is talking directly to consumers. OeHI and Mosaica Partners will be hosting focus groups around the state early this year. Please contact Mosaica Partners if you are interested in participating and please forward this communication to your stakeholders to share this opportunity. Consumers will receive a gift card for their participation. After the consumer focus groups, OeHI will release a survey of consumer and stakeholder priorities and insights leveraged from research and other efforts to date. More details to come but do share this opportunity with your stakeholders!
Advancing Health Information Exchange and Data Sharing
This Health IT Roadmap initiative aims to harmonize data sharing capabilities, increase the rate of health information sharing, and advance health information exchange.
Health Information Exchange Working Group: Update
After the health information exchange (HIE) workgroup’s establishment in June 2018, the group administered a survey to assess priorities in Colorado for advancing health information exchanges. Over 100 health IT stakeholders across Colorado and the US responded to this survey. 

Using this data, the HIE workgroup established a number of priorities, including broadening and deepening of data connections and ensuring further inclusion of encounter, lab, immunizations and medication information from sources not currently connected to HIEs. Additional top priorities include: expanding notification services to provide alerts for populations of focus and quality measurement; advancing electronic health record (EHR) integration into the providers workflow; and data standardization. 

ï»żThe workgroup has provided the Office of eHealth Innovation preliminary budgets and are working on timelines and project plans for each of the individual projects for 2019 and beyond. The Office is discussing with the eHealth Commission the criteria and process for funding Colorado's HIEs and officially presenting the criteria at the March eHealth Commission meeting. For more information, contact OeHI's Interim Director (Carrie.Paykoc@state.co.us) or click here to view the October workgroup presentation to the commission.
Colorado Smart Data Initiative- Summit and Analytics Challenge
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology’s (OIT) Smart Data Summit and Analytics Challenge took place on November 8, providing attendees with a full day of learning, discussion, and inquiry regarding data sharing and cross-agency collaboration. The day began with the smart data summit, connecting programmatic leadership across Colorado agencies and Colorado health IT leadership to explore and develop processes to foster data sharing and solve key issues in the state. Attendees participated in a “speed-dating” activity where they interacted with a number of key leaders in health IT and other domains important to the state.

An exciting kick-off for the smart data analytics challenge began in the afternoon. It initiated a six-week challenge to bring together data analysts to understand Colorado’s critical issues and public data sets to develop data-based analytic insights for Colorado in three topic areas: the opioid crisis, water supply, and smart cities. The final event for the challenge was held on December 11. Eight teams completed submissions of data analyses and participated in the final event. We look forward to building on this exciting initiative in future years.

Special thanks to all who attended. We hope that discussions at the summit informed your work to continually improve health care in Colorado! This summit is an example of OeHI's focused work with state agencies to share data in support of Roadmap activities.
Pictured Left: Data Summit participants discuss analytics-oriented solutions for the State of Colorado.
ï»żPictured Right: Jon Gottsegen delivers an address to Data Summit participants.
Unique Provider Identity
This Health IT Roadmap initiative develops and implements a comprehensive approach that will be used across Colorado for uniquely identifying a health care provider, their organizational affiliations and, ultimately, their patient relationships.
CDPHE Workforce (Provider) Directory
Collaboration continues among OeHI, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and The Governor's Office of Information Technology (OIT).

We have made significant progress leveraging the provider directory for statewide use cases and for addressing specific needs since the project launched. Steve Holloway, Chief of the Health Access Branch at CDPHE, presented updates to the eHealth Commission during the December meeting on the latest project evolution. CDPHE has secured new federal funding for the provider directory, released a new user interface and is continuing efforts with OIT to leverage the state application programming interface (API) infrastructure.

OeHI is working with both CDPHE and OIT to fund and generate API development within OIT through an interagency agreement. Once the agreement is established and approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the funding and project will advance to the next stage. This work is in alignment with recent recommendations for states to leverage CMS funding to expand access to HIE infrastructure and provider directories.

The next section describes the policy and funding opportunity. Focused work is also underway regarding advancing state identity infrastructure and alignment with health information exchange infrastructure to leverage innovative identity solutions and establish the right level of governance to better serve our stakeholders and communities.
State Medicaid Director Letter on Provider Directories
In July of 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a State Medicaid Director Letter regarding 21st Century Cures Act, Section 5006, Compliance and Provider Directories.

Section 5006 of the Cures Act amended the Social Security Act to add a new requirement for states to publish a provider directory and update this directory at least annually. As states assess how to implement this requirement, they can also consider how directories can support broader efforts to improve interoperability, reduce provider burden and provide patients greater flexibility to access and share their health data. For more information, refer to the State Medicaid Director Letter .
Support Care Coordination in Communities
This Health IT Roadmap initiative is focused on advancing technical approaches that can be utilized to easily share care coordination information within and across communities.
Care Coordination Environmental Scan and Results
Beginning in August 2018, the care coordination workgroup, with support from the eHealth Commission, focused on defining projects and efforts that align with coordinating whole person care and assisting vulnerable populations. The eHealth Commission hosted several conversations with the Zoma Foundation, Prevention Alliance and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to discuss the potential of a social health information exchange in Colorado.

The group crafted a white paper detailing the importance of socio-economic factors and non-medical services in supporting a healthy population. OeHI enthusiastically endorses the creation of a social-health information exchange with a referral and tracking mechanism to connect health care services, government programs, and community-based service providers across Colorado. For more information, access the white paper here .

This work continues to evolve. Dr. Anne Boyer, eHealth Commissioner and Chief Medical Information Officer at Denver Health, Kim Ball from Health Tech Solutions, and Carrie Paykoc, Interim Director of OeHI, presented results of the care coordination environmental scan at the December eHealth Commission meeting. Through a series of more than 35 interviews with 90 participants across Colorado, the scan identified points of synthesis to determine current and desired care coordination goals for the purpose of supporting whole person care. 

The scan found a number of positive themes, including excitement about technology collaboration, data sharing and social health influencers, support for community organizations, and consensus regarding the importance of social health influencers. The scan also identified major challenges, including developing frameworks for data sharing and data governance, consent management, and providing financial incentives and technical support to encourage data sharing between health organizations. 

The care coordination workgroup is using this information to continue to refine initial recommendations, projects and approach for this initiative. The feedback from the eHealth eHealth Commission in December was for a call to action and visibility into the funding and contracting process. As Roadmap efforts transition from planning to implementation and now with funding available, eHealth Commissioners are eager to start the work in a fair and transparent manner.

At the January eHealth Commission meeting, the workgroup presented their high-level timelines and project plans which were well received by the commission. The workgroup continues to refine their action plan and recommendations for projects and meetings that will launch in early 2019. Related to the eHealth Commission's request, OeHI's Interim Director led the conversation about funding philosophy, contracting, and the role of the eHealth Commission .

Many thanks to a great group of experts and community members that have pulled this complex work together!
project ID 64030
Rx RFI: Containing Prescription Drug Costs
During the November eHealth Commission meeting, Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) Executive Director Kim Bimestefer presented the new Three – Five Year Health Care Cost Control Roadmap . HCPF has developed a framework to control employer and consumer health care costs by constraining hospital and prescription drug prices, focusing on alternative payment models, aligning and strengthening data infrastructure, maximizing innovation and improving population health.

Of special importance is constraining prescription drug costs. In Colorado, per capita prescription costs have surpassed all other health care spending, with spending on specialty prescription drugs rising unsustainably. To combat this, the Health Cost Control Roadmap proposes creation of a physician prescribing shared tool to: 1. drive prescribing based on efficacy, not manufacturer incentives 2. require all carriers to provide rebate and manufacturer compensation 3. promote pricing transparency and 4. implement value-based payments. With input from OeHI, HCPF hopes to drastically constrain the price of prescription drugs and health care costs within the next three to five years. HCPF plans on releasing the RFP in early spring and has invited health IT experts to provide input on the system and integrations. For more details, please reach out to Kim's assistant Lauren via email at Lauren.Catalano@state.co.us .
Digital Health Innovation
This Health IT Roadmap Initiative is focused on facilitating programs, processes, and partnerships that foster health-related innovation in Colorado.
Colorado Health Foundation's Prime Health Challenge
The Colorado Health Foundation’s 2018 Prime Health Challenge took place in October at the EXDO Event Center in Denver, where six startups faced off in a “Shark Tank-style” pitch competition with $150,000 on the line. The winners included Epharmix, a remote monitoring company, Care on Location, a Telehealth provider, and Tela, a symptom tracker.

The winners will get the chance to pilot their solutions at host institutions, including Kaiser Permanente, UCHealth and Children’s Hospital Colorado. With support from The Colorado Health Foundation, winners were awarded a share of $150,000 in pilot funding. Each company had been chosen to pitch because their innovation offered to radically improve care for underserved patients. “Innovation doesn’t come from us or big hospitals,” said Kim Bimestefer, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy & Financing, “It doesn’t come from big insurance companies. It comes from you.”

Thank you to all who attended! 2018 results can be found here .
Upcoming Events
Children's Colorado Pediatric Innovation Challenge
Tuesday, February 19
4:00 - 6:30 PM
Come view the finalists compete for the innovation prize money in two categories: innovation in prototype stage and innovation in idea stage. This is sure to be an exciting and inspiring event! More details can be found here.
10.10.10 Spring Challenge
Join us in Denver for 1O Days as we introduce 1O Wicked Problems that impact our cities and our lives. Meet the 1O Serial Entrepreneurs invited to Denver from around the U.S. to develop breakthrough efforts to tackle wicked problems and start new ventures. 

Wicked Problems are belligerent beasts, at once insidious and indomitable. Attempts by government and industry to contain them only
extend their reach and tighten their grip on society.

You are invited to watch as serial entrepreneurs - seasoned visionaries with a successful track record - envision and enact the solutions that will make the world a better place. You'll be hard pressed to find a more inspiring and enlightening experience.

1O.1O.1O Cities: (Health) 2019
Denver April 1-11

Big Reveal: April 1, 4-7 pm
McNichols Civic Center Building
144 W. Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80202

Finale: April 11, 2019 
McNichols Civic Center Building
144 W. Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80202 

This is the sixth 1O.1O.1O program, the fifth focused on health. For information on our results to date, please visit our website at www.101010.net . Six new ventures have launched and four more are in development to tackle wicked problems in health, water and infrastructure. 

Sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Rose Community Foundation. 
2019 Prime Health Innovation Summit
Hosted by Prime Health and the Governor's Office of eHealth Innovation
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m
Prime Health is teaming up with the Governor's Office of eHealth Innovation for the third year to make an impact and improve health care in Colorado. Come join Colorado’s health innovation ecosystem—policy makers, health care delivery systems, payers, providers, entrepreneurs and investors—as we discuss key priorities of the statewide health IT Roadmap and the role of entrepreneurs in reaching this goal.

The summit event will include panels and presentations on issues ranging from care coordination, broadband access, data sharing, and patient engagement from a variety of perspectives to drive alignment between the health care innovation community and the State of Colorado. The summit will also have a pre-conference webinar that participants can join remotely and engage in meaningful discussion before the main event

Tickets will be available soon on the Prime Health website. .  

If you are interested in speaking opportunities or sponsorship, reach out to Rachel Dixon at rachel@primehealthco.com
eHealth Commissioner Spotlight
Commissioner Spotlight 
Michele Lueck
President & CEO

Where do you see the future of health care going? 
I have pragmatic ideas about this. There is something to be admired about big ideas, like universal health care or having one geographic rating. I think the market is so complicated that those large concepts have a difficult time gaining traction. So, I focus on incremental steps that will make a difference. For example, what are the two or three things from a payment reform perspective that would reduce the overall cost structure to make things more affordable to patients and consumers? What are the ways that employers can provide a different set of benefits and educate their employees to make health outcomes more attainable? So, I see our work largely entail the nudging of current systems to make them better for all Coloradans.

What impact do you want to leave in your profession? 
The mission and vision of CHI I hold more dearly and I work harder for than any job at any firm or data organization I’ve worked for before. I really believe, and so does CHI, that better health policy leads to a healthier Colorado. I further believe that you get to better health policy, when it is informed by data, research, and insights from experts. It is easy to think about policy as something that happens in the gold dome, however, it happens at all levels. Data is involved in governance, research, and at the community level. It’s made at the dinner table in local communities. So, we see policy as all of these different levels, and we weigh in on those policies. So, my impact is that through the work of CHI, our state is able to make better health policy decisions and advance the health of Coloradans through our research and analysis.