Activate Care, a national provider of Health Collaboration Hub software for health and social care coordination, has been profiled in the report, “Catalyzing Coordination: Technology’s Role in California’s Whole Person Care Pilots” by the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), an independent philanthropy focused on improving California’s health care system.
Whole Person Care (WPC) is a five-year Medicaid program designed to redesign how healthcare and social services are delivered to Medi-Cal beneficiaries who have the greatest needs and use the most services. One of the most fundamental barriers to truly integrating care — as WPC aims to do — is healthcare and social service organizations’ ability to share data. If entities cannot effectively exchange information about the patients they share, then they cannot effectively coordinate care for those patients.
This report discusses the technological challenges and successes encountered by WPC pilot participants as they have begun to implement new systems and solutions to accomplish the goals of WPC. The report, whose findings were culled from 25 survey responses and 20 in-depth interviews conducted with pilot participants, includes:
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Two case studies of county health and human services systems and their technology-facilitated breakthroughs with care coordination. Marin County implemented Activate Care in 2018, whereas Contra Costa County opted to use their county-wide EHR, Epic.
- An overview of Activate Care and our collaborative partnership with Marin County in developing customized workflows and functionality to support their WPC program.
"This approach has been a game changer for social service providers and community clinics to have this awareness and connection to other providers across the continuum," said Ken Shapiro, Director of Whole Person Care, Marin County. "We can now share information securely for all clients who are managed through Whole Person Care, and we can keep them from popping in and out of social services, which is a huge determinant of health."
"Marin's success really highlights how it is the integrating of workflow and shared communication across health and community organizations - what Activate Care's platform really excels at - that adds value for these populations," said Ted Quinn, CEO & Co-founder, Activate Care. "Marin sets a terrific example of how to close the loop between healthcare and social services, which is to disrupt the cycle of 'fire and forget' referrals, and seamlessly coordinate care to meet all of a patient’s physical, behavioral, and social needs."
The report was commissioned by CHCF and authored by Keira Armstrong, Mark Elson, and John Weir, all of Intrepid Ascent.
