Committee forwards multiple DPH grants and data-sharing agreement to full board

The Budget and Finance Committee on Feb. 1 forwarded a package of Department of Public Health (DPH) items to the full board after brief presentations and limited questioning.

Item 3: Eric Raffin, DPH chief information officer, asked the committee to recommend approval of a no-cost, perpetual data-sharing agreement between DPH and the California Health and Human Services Agency that implements the Data Exchange Framework (DXF) created by AB 133. Raffin described DXF as a framework that aims to bring social services agencies and public-health departments into a more robust information-sharing system.

Items 4–7 (grouped): Nicole Trainer (DPH) explained the CDC Integrated HIV Surveillance and Prevention Programs request for approximately $7.8 million to continue surveillance and prevention work through May 31, 2024. Bill Blum summarized a retroactive request to apply for Part A Ryan White funds totaling $15,962,602 to serve the San Francisco eligible metropolitan area (San Francisco County and the grantee roles covering Marin and San Mateo). Anthony Taylor described a $389,274 supplemental STD award that increases the grant total to roughly $1.365 million and will fund congenital syphilis prevention partnerships with UCSF. Julia Janssen and Eduardo Cita outlined a retroactive MPox Response Funding Award of about $1.6 million for lab support, vaccine logistics, communications and reimbursement for staff positions used in the city's response.

Item 8: Jeff Scarra Fea (DPH deputy CIO) presented approximately $316,000 from the San Francisco Health Plan under the state CalAIM IPP program to support IT surge resources and consultants (including Epic CareLink expertise) to create closed-loop referrals for Medi-Cal populations.

In each case, committee members asked clarifying questions about reimbursements, retroactivity and reporting; DPH staff said the state had not yet confirmed additional MPOX funding and that BLA-recommended documentation will be included in legislative files. With no public commenters on these items, the committee voted 3-0 to forward them all with positive recommendations.

What happens next: The full Board of Supervisors will consider the data-sharing agreement and all grant acceptances and applications. The committee asked DPH to include BLA-recommended materials in legislative files and to track any future state reimbursements.