Health Reform Decision and HealthInfoNet
After the Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a number of people have asked what impact the decision will have on HealthInfoNet. On the surface, there appears to be no immediate impact. The federal programs that shape HealthInfoNet the most are anchored within the HITECH Act and include funding for the health information exchange (HIE) program, the regional extension center (REC), the Bangor Beacon Community, and the EHR meaningful use incentive program. However, the Court's decision on the ACA does introduce an element of certainty for a fundamental transition in care management and payment reform. This reinforces the role that HealthInfoNet will play moving forward.
Read more at our blog.
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New NwHIN Direct Secure Messaging Service in the Works
HealthInfoNet has partnered with SureScripts to offer secure messaging for providers across Maine. Essentially secure email, it will facilitate sharing of patient information from one provider to another. For example, if a patient changes to a new primary care doctor, their old doctor can use the service to send them the patient's entire medical record, quickly and securely. The service will be rolled out first to practices involved in the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) project, the Bangor Beacon Community and 200 individual behavioral health providers. Subscriptions will be available for others starting in the fall.
The service is based on technical standards defined by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Nationwide Heath Information Network (NwHIN) Direct project, but includes a number of added features common in many email programs such as delegates, address book, email tracking, templates and more. The service is accessed through a web browser or desktop widget and can accommodate a variety of file formats.
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
HealthInfoNet is undertaking a first-of-a-kind project to create a statewide medical image repository, and for the first time, make medical images available in the statewide health information exchange (HIE). As far as we know, Maine would be the first state to create such a repository and the first to provide access to this repository through the statewide HIE portal.
By consolidating these images into a single archive, economies of scale will drive down the costs for all participating organizations. In fact, a study including Maine's four largest integrated delivery systems showed a savings of $6 million over seven years through reduced storage and transport costs. Based on this study, it is anticipated that all provider organizations involved in image management in Maine will experience significant operational cost savings. In addition to current images, the archive will also provide clinicians with easier access to past image studies (relevant priors) because HealthInfoNet will be able to link each image with a single patient identifier through its HIE Master Person Index.
Read more at our website.
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Beyond HIE: Public and Population Health Reporting
HealthInfoNet was selected as the first statewide HIE in the United States to participate in a federal CDC demonstration program to test using HIEs to report de-identified, population-level, preventative care data to support population health. The program will report data related to cardiovascular disease, specially the 13 clinical quality measures that healthcare providers must report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to meet meaningful use requirements. Going forward, HealthInfoNet will be positioned to share population-level data derived from these clinical quality measures with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC). The information will be provider anonymized and patient de-identified, and used to inform statewide public health and heart disease prevention strategies.
HealthInfoNet is using an open-source application called popHealth to de-identify, anonymize, aggregate and securely transmit the clinical quality measures to the CDC. Sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the software was created to automate reporting of meaningful use measures from a provider's electronic health record system while ensuring de-identification of the transmitted data. This is the first time the software is being applied for use within an HIE.
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HealthInfoNet Honors Coastal Women's Healthcare
This past May, HealthInfoNet organized a ceremony to recognize Maine Regional Extension Center participant Coastal Women's Healthcare. The Scarborough practice was honored for their successful transition from paper to electronic health records and achievement of Meaningful Use Stage One requirements. They were further recognized as the first independent women's health practice to connect with Maine's health information exchange.
 | | Rick Hoover of CMS with Coastal Women's Healthcare President Barbara Slager, MD. |
In attendance at the ceremony were officials from CMS, representatives of Maine's Congressional delegation, the Maine Medical Association, and other Maine health care leaders. "I'm thrilled to represent CMS in honoring this exceptional practice," said Rick Hoover from the CMS regional office. "At CMS we believe the use of health information technology will reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. We're seeing an example of that right here in Scarborough, Maine."
Read more at our website.
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HealthInfoNet
info@hinfonet.org
www.hinfonet.org
207-541-9250 or 866-592-4352 |
