In March 2018 Blue Shield of California announced that beginning this year it would require providers in its contracts to participate in the nonprofit health information network Manifest MedEx. Now 18-month-old Manifest MedEx has announced that several large physician groups and health systems are joining.
San Francisco-based Cal Index was founded in 2014 as a nonprofit health information exchange through seed funding from Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. After slow initial uptake and several leadership changes, Cal Index merged last year with the San Bernardino-based Inland Empire HIE to become Manifest MedEx.
Manifest MedEx (MX) said it is adding Heritage California and Hill Physicians — two of the largest medical groups in the state — and Stanford Health Care to the network. This will bring an estimated 1.5 million patients to the health information network already covering more than 11 million Californians.
Heritage Provider Network covers 700,000 patients with its network of 2,800 primary care physicians, 6,600 specialists, and more than 100 hospitals in Southern California. Hill Physicians has nearly 4,000 primary care physicians, specialists, sub-specialists, and consultants in its Northern California medical group.
Besides adding new members, MX also announced it reached key growth milestones during the first half of 2018, including:
• Launched the MX Notify product, a tool that updates clinicians and other care providers in real time when their patients are seen in the emergency department or are discharged from a hospital. Once notified, care management teams can contact patients the day of a hospital discharge to coordinate follow-up appointments and care, improving care coordination and reducing readmissions.
• Teamed with Inland Empire Health Plan as it pledged $6 million in incentives to regional hospitals that use the MX health data exchange this year as part of their 2018 pay-for-performance program.
