California § 14132.726

§ 14132.726.

(a) (1) Commencing in 2028 and every two years thereafter, the department shall use Medi-Cal data and other data sources available to the department to produce analyses in a publicly available Medi-Cal telehealth utilization report. (2) The department may include the analyses described in paragraph (1) in each of the department’s Biennial Telehealth Utilization Reports. A report described in paragraph (1) may be an update to the department’s Biennial Telehealth Utilization Report, if the department continues to publish that report since its inception in 2024, or it may be a different applicable report published by the department. (b) The analyses described in subdivision (a) shall address telehealth access and utilization data, including all of the following: (1) Telehealth visits per 100,000 Medi-Cal member months. This information shall be disaggregated by demographics and other metrics, including, but not limited to, age group, race and ethnicity, sex, primary language, county, county size, aid code group, and Medi-Cal managed care plan. (2) Telehealth visits and all outpatient visits. (3) Commonly utilized Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes for outpatient telehealth visits. (4) Percentage of Medi-Cal members by number of telehealth claims. (5) Utilization of telehealth by Medi-Cal members with multiple claims with a higher-than-average rate of use. This information shall be disaggregated by demographics and other metrics, including, but not limited to, age group, race and ethnicity, sex, primary language, aid code group, and number and percentage of telehealth utilizers per reporting period. (6) Telehealth visits of specialty mental health services and nonspecialty mental health services. (7) Telehealth visits of outpatient dental services. (8) New patient telehealth claims utilization by modality mix. (9) Established patient telehealth claims utilization by modality mix. (10) Commonly utilized medical outpatient health services delivered via telehealth. (11) Telehealth visits as a percentage of all medical outpatient health services. (c) (1) Wherever possible based on the availability of data, the analyses described in subdivision (a) shall be disaggregated by geographic, demographic, and social determinants of health categories to identify disparities. (2) Social determinants of health categories may be approximated using existing data sources, including the Healthy Places Index or similar indices. (d) In addition to the data elements described in subdivision (b), the department shall identify other data elements, including, but not limited to, data on patient outcomes and population health, for inclusion in future reports to help to identify and address access-to-care issues or provide greater insight into utilization of telehealth modalities.