IHA Stakeholders’ Newsletter — May 2026

Summer is right around the corner, and it's a busy season for IHA. We're looking forward to connecting with clients and partners at upcoming industry events and advancing meaningful progress across our programs. Read on for the latest from Symphony and Align. Measure. Perform. (AMP). 

Symphony updates

Market Penetration Grows

Inaccurate provider directories make it hard for patients to find and access care. Symphony was created to address that, serving as California’s centralized source for accurate provider directory information. The momentum is real: Symphony health plans now cover 15.4 million California enrollees, representing 72% of total enrollees statewide (excluding Kaiser), with more than 102,000 MDs and DOs represented in the directory. This year, IHA is focused on meeting new provider directory regulatory requirements, driving broader adoption among participating organizations, and delivering much awaited product enhancements.

Roster alignment progress
For years, provider organizations have shared data updates with health plans through rosters. These static files in varying formats create friction and slow down efficient data exchange. Symphony has successfully created a standard format to streamline data exchange, but more work is needed to better align these legacy rosters. 

Over the past few months, IHA has held multiple workgroup sessions with participating health plans, provider organizations, and other industry stakeholders. Key outcomes from these sessions include completing analysis and mapping of eight health plan rosters, reviewing known industry provider roster requirements, identifying data element redundancies, and developing individual action plans with specific recommendations tailored to each plan. We are now finalizing recommendations for each plan and will be reviewing them with health plans, the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), and other stakeholders to chart a path forward.

Symphony and SB 137
IHA has been an active voice in shaping California’s provider directory standards, and that work continues. SB 137 requires health plans to meet uniform standards for provider directory accuracy and provide timely updates, giving consumers more reliable information about which providers are in their network.

Throughout 2025, IHA submitted comments during all three SB 137 public comment periods to help strengthen provider directory processes. This spring, IHA completed a SB 137 crosswalk for DMHC to confirm alignment of the Symphony data model. Now that the DMHC’s ruling is finalized, we’re introducing Symphony data model updates to ensure clients are ready to meet the new accuracy and timeliness requirements.

Align. Measure. Perform.

Primary Care Investment Report
IHA recently released our inaugural Primary Care Investment Report, the newest addition to our AMP Pulse reporting products. This interactive report presents 2021-2023 primary care spending data covering more than 19 million Commercial HMO/PPO/EPO, Medicare Advantage HMO/PPO, and Medi-Cal Managed care members across 14 health plans. The resource gives AMP health plans and provider organizations a dynamic, interactive benchmarking tool to track primary care spending, compare performance against peers, and understand correlations between primary care investment and clinical quality, utilization, and cost outcomes. IHA’s data consistently shows that higher primary care spending is linked to higher clinical quality and fewer emergency department visits.

The interactive report is a valuable tool to track progress toward the California Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA) target of 15% of total spending devoted to primary care by 2034. See the key findings from our Primary Care Investment Report.

IHA Performance Comparison Report for Health Plans
The IHA Performance Comparison Report for Measurement Year 2024 is now available. This is the second release of its kind. The report gives participating health plans an up-to-date, easy-to-use, interactive view of performance across key AMP quality and cost measures.

The report delivers clear performance data from 15 million commercial HMO and PPO members across California. Health plans can benchmark their performance against statewide and regional averages, compare against peers, and track year-over-year trends — all in one simple, interactive report.

IHA Partners with NCQA and West Health on Behavioral Health Measurement
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and West Health recently announced a multi-year initiative to align payers and providers around a core set of behavioral health quality measures. The effort will create a shared foundation for how care is delivered, evaluated, improved, and reimbursed across diverse care settings. Despite growing demand for behavioral health, access remains limited, and barriers continue to hamper integration with primary care. Providers need clear quality measures, reliable data, and workflows that will sustain better care over time.

IHA will serve as a partner in this project, drawing on AMP’s data collection and analytic capabilities and established relationships with California provider organizations (POs). IHA’s role includes facilitating engagement between AMP POs and NCQA to ensure seamless integration of workflows, providing feedback on measure effectiveness, and aggregating PO quarterly measurement results for submission to NCQA. The partnership was publicly announced at a launch event in San Diego in April.

Align. Measure. Perform. brand
Last fall, we shared that a brand refresh for IHA’s performance measurement capabilities is in the works. The refresh is aimed at deepening stakeholder engagement, positioning the program for future growth, and reinforcing IHA as a trusted source of healthcare performance information. You may have already noticed some changes: our website’s performance measurement section is getting a new look, consolidated under the Align. Measure. Perform. brand, with the remaining web page updates rolling out soon. The AMP program and resources you rely on aren’t going anywhere - you’ll just find them in a refreshed, unified home. Visit IHA.org to check it out.

In other news

CAHP seminar recap: Making the case with data
In March, our President and CEO Jeff Rideout, MD, participated in the California Association of Health Plans’ Strengthening Data Infrastructure in California seminar. The session, “Using Data to Tell the Story and Demonstrate Value,” brought industry voices together to discuss what data is telling us about healthcare performance in California.

Among the findings presented: IHA AMP data shows that between 2020 and 2024, childhood influenza vaccination rates (ages 0-2) in California fell 15 points, a trend that coincides with rising flu positivity rates among children. Read our latest blog post for a closer look at what the data shows.

Save the date: IHA Health Policy Update webinar
Mark your calendars! IHA’s 4th annual Health Policy Update is coming up on July 8, 2026, from 11 am – 12 pm PST.

This annual event brings together healthcare stakeholders from across California to break down the latest on the state budget, key healthcare legislation, and regulatory changes. We are pleased to share that Mary Watanabe, Director of DMHC, will headline the webinar. Registration details are coming soon!

Where you’ll find us
IHA will be out in force this spring and fall, attending and participating in several key industry conferences.

• IHA staff from both AMP and Symphony will be attending the America’s Physician Groups Spring Conference 2026 (May 27-29, San Diego). We’d love to connect if you’re going to be there. Reach out in advance at events@iha.org to set up time with us.

• This fall, IHA will be at the California Association of Health Plans Annual Conference (October 19-21, Desert Springs). Be sure to stop by booth #112 during the event.