Connected Care Accelerator - Equity Collaborative

We’re supporting organizations in different implementation phases of virtual care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the way California delivers health care. Health care systems completely restructured their services to keep both their patients and employees safe. Federal policymakers acted quickly to expand coverage and payment for virtual care. The California Department of Health Care Services also dismantled previous barriers to telehealth and began requiring Medi-Cal managed care plans to pay providers for telephone and video visits at the same rate as in-person visits.

As a result, many California health care providers rapidly pivoted from in-person visits to remote patient visits. For these organizations, this shift has been transformational, as they’ve adopted new technology, overhauled workflows, and redefined team member roles.

Our Connected Care Accelerator: Equity Collaborative is built on CCI’s work with the original Connected Care Accelerator and the Virtual Care Innovation Network, both of which supported virtual care for historically underinvested communities.  Because the digital divide is still an enormous challenge for low-income, rural and migrant communities, among others, who often lack broadband and support for virtual care, the collaborative will rapidly design, scale and share strategies to improve equitable access to telehealth. We have selected 22 safety net healthcare providers in California for the 13-month program, which is supported by the California Health Care Foundation with additional funding from Cedars Sinai, and held our kick-off webinar this May. We will be posting regular updates on the program, so stay tuned! In the meantime, you can check on upcoming events, dates for share and learn sessions, and deliverables for the CCA-Equity Collaborative here .