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HICE CEO Update - January 2024

From:	broadcast@iceforhealth.org 1
Date:	1/5/2024 11:46:04 AM
Subject:	HICE CEO Update - January 2024
Message:	To HICE Participants Welcome back to the bi-monthly CEO Update, designed to keep members apprised of the current happenings at HICE. We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season! As we look back at our 2023 accomplishments and look ahead at what’s to come in 2024, here is an update on what has been going on since my last report: HICE 2023 Annual Conference / Save the Dates for 2024! A big thank you to everyone who attended our first in-person conference since 2019! It was great to see everyone in early December at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa in the Coachella Valley of Southern California! The conference included presentations from healthcare associations and industry organizations, sessions related to California regulatory agencies and 12 topic-specific breakout sessions, and by all accounts, it was a great success! So much so, that HICE will be back at that same location for our 2024 Annual Conference on Monday, December 9 & Tuesday, December 10 – you won’t want to miss it, so be sure and save the dates! 2024 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. Second request e-mails will be sent out next week to participating organizations in follow up to the original requests that were sent out in September 2023 if the requested funding was not received. We encourage those organizations not currently contributing to strongly consider making a donation to help fund the 2024 operating budget so HICE can continue to provide a collaboration platform to develop educational and "best practice" materials designed to streamline, simplify, and standardize regulatory policies and procedures that govern the provision of health care services that particularly require collaboration between health plans and their provider partners. You can view a list of the organizations that have contributed for 2024 so far here, including those in the CEO Leadership Circle. We are very grateful for this support – thank you! HICE Team / Website Updates Important Changes to the HICE Credentialing Shared Audit Program Effective as of January 1, 2024 - the objective of this flagship HICE program is to reduce the number of annual credentialing audits that are conducted at health plan-contracted provider organizations, thereby reducing the administrative burden on the health care industry. Based on an average of health plan credentialing personnel salaries, it is estimated that plans save at a minimum $1,000 per audit result used, yet many participating plans do not make an annual funding contribution to HICE to help support this collaborative effort. The tremendous growth of this shared process has caused HICE to have to re-evaluate the participation criteria for this value-added program due to the burden on HICE volunteers that help administer the program, as well as the equity of participation based on audit contribution vs. audit usage and, of organizations that contribute annual funding to HICE vs. those that do not. Based on the noted re-evaluation of participation criteria, HICE made a determination that non-NCQA accredited health plans that want to participate in the HICE Shared Credentialing Program in California, if not already doing so, will need to be contributing the requested amount in the HICE annual funding request letters that go out in September each year for the following year’s operating budget to be able to access any shared audit results in the coming year – the audit release letter process is no longer available. You can learn more about these program changes here, and HICE will be reviewing the feasibility of making similar changes to provider organization participation and to the other regions, as well. Several of the non-NCQA accredited health plans have opted to make the requested funding contribution, which demonstrates that those organizations value the collaboration opportunities and tools that HICE provides to the healthcare industry. Industry support is vital to the continued activities of HICE, and a contribution is a sound investment that has the potential to save your organization many times that amount in the coming year through HICE activities that result in operational efficiencies for the delegated model. Until the next update, please feel free to contact me at mmyers@iceforhealth.org or at 530-562-4235, with any suggestions, questions or comments. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2024!

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