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HICE CEO Update - February 2023

From:	broadcast@iceforhealth.org 1
Date:	2/28/2023 5:37:48 PM
Subject:	HICE CEO Update - February 2023
Message:	To HICE Participants Welcome back to the bi-monthly CEO Update, designed to keep members apprised of the current happenings at HICE! Here is an update on what has been going on since my last report: 2023 Operating Budget Funding Request Letters – as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, HICE relies on annual contributions from health plans, provider organizations and other health care industry entities to support educational and collaborative activities, and our important work cannot continue without this critical funding. These request letters were sent to participating organizations in September, with second request letters going out in mid-January, and a third and final request scheduled to go out next week. We encourage those organizations not currently contributing to strongly consider making a donation, as HICE relies on this funding to continue operations and provide value to the industry. Association Partnerships – monthly meetings continue between HICE and the California Association of Health Plans (CAHP), as well as America’s Physician Groups (APG). These discussions continue to be very beneficial on all sides and provide an excellent opportunity to stay aligned on collaborative work efforts for the industry and for HICE to stay at the forefront of upcoming regulatory requirements to better support and prepare for potential standardization around implementation. Health Net / IHA Medi-Cal Encounter Data Improvement Project – this project and partnership has continued into 2023, where the focus will be to continue to work with IHA to facilitate the review, analysis and consensus building for the development of recommended actions consistent with the identified encounter data priority area, as well as the development of supplemental materials for each priority area such as best practices documentation, reporting templates and submission guides, as needed. HICE 2023 Annual Conference – in the surveys conducted as part of the 2022 virtual conference, questions were included to get input on preferences around future conferences. That data was compiled and reviewed, and an RFP process, along with outreach to past sponsors and presenters, is currently underway to determine if it is feasible to go back to an in-person event later this year. There will be more to come on that as this process continues through the first quarter of 2023. HICE Team / Website Updates – Team Activities – the HICE teams once again did a tremendous amount of great work in 2022! A year-end summary of activities that also includes the focus for some of the teams in 2023 is now available here on the HICE website. Compliance Team – as a reminder, this team currently has workgroups addressing IT Systems Integrity shared audits and Delegated Entity Compliance shared audits. These programs make it possible for health plans (with delegate permission) to share audit results for IT system integrity and security and for compliance programs with other plans, and both audit tools offer a single corrective action plan functionality. To learn more about these activities and how to join these money and time-saving shared audit processes, please contact the team co-leads, Beth Richardson at beth.richardson@blueshieldca.com or Mary Curry at mary.curry@tmmc.com. Based on user feedback, additional enhancements to both of these web-based tools were approved by the HICE Board of Directors and will be completed in 2023, which is just one example of how funding contributions to HICE are utilized to promote the betterment of the healthcare industry. Website Audit Review Process – as I shared in my 2022 year-end update, a main area of focus for HICE this year will be around compliance review and audit structure to ensure that all of the information on the website is up-to-date and meets the most current regulatory requirements. We continue to look at possibly expanding our staff to support those efforts, and in the meantime, we have begun the process of reviewing all HICE website documents following an audit schedule, starting with the health plan-specific letter templates that are currently housed in the website library. HICE has been working with those plans that have opted to continue to share their specific letter templates to confirm that they have reviewed all of the templates to determine regulatory compliance and to provide contact information for the person(s) at their organization responsible for monitoring and managing these documents and authorized to certify the regulatory compliance of the materials. Those plans that have completed that process are now working with HICE to get their health plan-specific letter templates back on the website, which can be accessed here as they become available. As we continue this website review process throughout 2023, we will keep HICE participants apprised of the audit schedule and how that will impact access to certain documents and/or areas of the website. Until the next update, please feel free to contact me with any suggestions, questions or comments at mmyers@iceforhealth.org or at 530-562-4235. Thank you!