Report 2018-111 Recommendation 17 Responses

Report 2018-111: Department of Health Care Services: Millions of Children in Medi-Cal Are Not Receiving Preventive Health Services (Release Date: March 2019)

Recommendation #17 To: Health Care Services, Department of

To improve the usefulness of its PDSA process, DHCS should implement by September 2019 a process to share the results of successful strategies with all plans and require plans to share these results with providers who could benefit from them.

1-Year Agency Response

DHCS continues to share promising practices through all the avenues previously discussed. DHCS added additional questions to the annual MCP survey as previously discussed. DHCS shared the results of the survey, including the results of the additional question through the QI Toolkit in September 2019. DHCS notified the MCPs of this addition to the Toolkit via email and instructed the MCPs to share promising practices with their providers as appropriate. DHCS also shared the promising practices with the MCPs through an in-person meeting with the MCP Medical Directors in October 2019. DHCS has identified the QI Toolkit as the best centralized location to maintain records of promising practices and will continue to update the QI Toolkit on an ongoing basis, in addition to sharing promising practices through the other avenues already discussed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

DHCS provided evidence that it compiled promising practices by requiring plans to share them using the QI toolkit. DHCS also demonstrated that it shared promising practices with all managed care plans.

6-Month Agency Response

DHCS continues to share promising practices through all avenues previously discussed, and continues to identify new ways to share promising practices. DHCS conducted the annual Quality Improvement (QI) Survey with the MCPs and incorporated new questions into that survey, requiring the MCPs to provide information on their successful interventions and interventions that they are continuing to spread. DHCS will be compiling the results of the survey to share the information back with all MCPs through a number of forums, including through the QI Toolkit as well as through in-person meetings. DHCS will continue to engage further with MCPs to share promising practices. In the next update, DHCS intends to share the QI Toolkit and agendas from in person meetings.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

DHCS has begun compiling practices from its PDSA process but has not yet begun sharing those practices with all plans as we recommend. Specifically, it has not yet demonstrated a formal process to share the results of successful strategies with all plans or implemented a requirement that plans share the results of successful strategies with providers who could benefit from them. DHCS' reference to sharing through avenues previously discussed is addressed on page 48 of our report.

60-Day Agency Response

DHCS continues to share promising practices through all avenues previously discussed, and continues to identify new ways to share promising practices. DHCS will engage further with MCPs to share best practices and issue a document summarizing them. DHCS will work with MCPs to identify appropriate best practices to be implemented in their respective geographic areas.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

We look forward to reviewing documentation supporting the implementation of this recommendation in DHCS' 6-month response.

All Recommendations in 2018-111

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.