The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) is a non-profit, non-partisan policy research, planning and technical support organization working to advance the use of telehealth technologies in California’s and the nation’s health care system.
Established in 2008 by the California HealthCare Foundation, CCHP is an independent, not-for-profit planning and technical assistance organization.
In 2012, CCHP became the federally designated National Telehealth Policy Resource Center, tasked with providing technical assistance in telehealth policy to 12 Regional Telehealth Resource Centers nationwide and serving as a national resource on telehealth policy issues.
CCHP is a resource in California and for other state and national decision makers in the health care industry, and provides technical support that can lead to a more receptive policy environment for provision of telehealth services. CCHP conducts objective policy analysis and research, makes non-partisan policy recommendations, and manages innovative telehealth demonstration projects.
Telehealth technologies are powerful tools in achieving the Triple Aim of health reform—improved quality of care, better community health, and cost savings—as well as significantly increasing access to comprehensive health care services. CCHP advocates for the promotion of policies and practices that expand telehealth services in pursuit of these goals.
Recent CCHP policy projects include:
- State Telehealth Laws and Reimbursement Policies - A scan of telehealth laws and Medicaid regulations in the 50 states and District of Columbia;
- Telehealth Advancement Act - This new statute, AB 415, updates California telehealth law and removes policy barriers to telehealth use. The bill's author and sponsor, in drafting this legislation, drew from CCHP's Telehealth Model Statute report. CCHP provided non-partisan technical support on the bill.
- California Telehealth Model Statute - CCHP issued a model statute report that recommends modernizing state telemedicine and workforce laws, to encourage more robust adoption of telehealth technologies;
- Tele-Dermatology in Medi-Cal - This project is examined California’s tele-dermatology workforce, with a focus on the 2007 Medi-Cal tele-dermatology reimbursement law, gauge its impact in boosting use of these technologies;
- Tele-ICU California Assessment Project - NEHI, a national health policy institute, conducted a research project in collaboration with CCHP to examine barriers to use of tele-ICUs, and to identify regions of California that would benefit from expansion of tele-ICUs.
- Connecting California: The Impact of the Stimulus Package on Telehealth and Broadband Expansion - a 2009 issue brief that describes broadband and telehealth provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and makes recommendations on how California could take maximum advantage of ARRA funding opportunities.
CCHP’s most recent demonstration project was The Specialty Care Safety Net Initiative (SCSNI). This project, which concluded in 2012, connected 43 safety net clinics across California with medical specialists at the five University of California Schools of Medicine. The SCSNI served as a laboratory to identify the means of establishing permanent relationships between UC medical schools and California’s safety net providers.
CCHP is a project of the Public Health Institute (PHI), an independent, nonprofit organization that was incorporated in California in 1964. PHI is dedicated to promoting health, well-being and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world.