On March 19, 2025 Connecting for Better Health hosted its 2nd Annual Day at the Capitol, bringing together coalition partners in Sacramento to champion stronger data sharing across California. The day took place at the State Capitol in Sacramento beginning with a coalition morning meeting to orient participants on the day’s objectives, followed by legislative visits to 42 Senate and Assembly offices and two California Health and Human Services departments.
The 50 coalition partners represented a diverse set of data exchange stakeholders including health plans, health information exchanges, community-based and social services organizations, counties, and other non-profit organizations. Partners brought stories regarding health and social data sharing from their personal and professional experiences of navigating respective systems. In addition, partners advocated to pass Senate Bill 660 (Menjivar), a bill sponsored by Connecting for Better Health that would strengthen the Data Exchange Framework (DxF) with greater governance and accountability for data exchange stakeholders. The bill would establish the California Health and Human Services (CalHHS) Data Exchange Board to review and approve changes to the DxF and Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) under the Center for Data Insights and Innovation (CDII). Additionally, the bill clarifies required signatories to the DSA, and expands the list to include Emergency Services.
In addition to our legislative meetings, C4BH welcomed Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula for a briefing on his legislative priorities and goals for the year.
Key Themes of Legislative Visits
Following the afternoon legislative visits, C4BH gathered feedback from coalition partners describing their conversation with legislative staff. These discussions included conversations regarding the impact of data sharing on patients, CalAIM-related topics, housing and homelessness and the role data sharing can play in emergency preparedness. Compared with 2024, many legislative staff had a greater degree of familiarity with the DxF.
Next Steps
Following another successful Day at the Capitol, C4BH will continue its advocacy efforts to advance SB 660 by submitting letters of support and continuously gathering human-centered stories that uplift the importance of data sharing.
On behalf of C4BH, thank you to all that were able to join us this year in Sacramento and we look forward to continuing the momentum and conversations as we strive to advance data sharing to support better health outcomes.
