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WISHIN's eNewsletter
Welcome to WISHIN Connections, the monthly e-Newsletter for the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN).  We will keep you up to date with WISHIN activities, news on health information exchange (HIE) and new product developments.
Recent WISHIN Beat Posts

WISHIN Pulse Doesn't Cost; It Pays!

 

Why should a hospital, doctor, clinic, nursing home, or other health care organization make an investment to become part of WISHIN's statewide health information network?  Read more

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WISHIN News  
The Financial Reason More Hospitals and Doctors are Sharing Information

On-Line WISHIN ROI Calculator Will Launch Soon

A new era in health care is upon us - and doctors and hospitals that aren't part of it could get smaller reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.

With deadlines for Meaningful Use stage 2 (MU2) looming, many hospitals and clinics are on a last-minute push to install the technology and processes needed to exchange care summaries (sometimes referred to as CCDs or CCDAs) -- standardized digital documents designed to contain information that would be needed when a patient transitions from one provider or care setting to another. They are also looking to satisfy Public Health reporting objectives (syndromic surveillance, reporting to the Wisconsin Immunization Registry) under MU2.

 

WISHIN is already working with hundreds of hospitals and physician offices in Wisconsin to enable them to exchange care summaries smoothly with one another.   Many of these same organizations are also going to be satisfying public-health reporting requirements through WISHIN.

 

While the clinical value of care summaries is obvious - patient information is prospectively made available for query, providing instant access for those who are making clinical decisions -- there are strong financial incentives to participate in WISHIN's health information exchange services.

 

Compliance with MU2 requirements can deliver substantial new revenue to health care organizations in the form of bonus payments under Medicare and Medicaid. Conversely, organizations that do not comply with MU2 face the prospect of penalties under those programs.

 

Participation in WISHIN also offers the potential to substantially reduce the administrative cost and burden of retrieving and sending patient records. Health information exchange is nothing new - hospitals and clinics routinely send and receive patient information to and from each other. But this process is often extremely time- and labor-intensive, requiring manual retrieval and delivery via fax or postal mail.

 

By enabling the prospective sharing of electronic patient information and query retrieval by the recipient of the information, health information exchange through WISHIN becomes a standardized, efficient, automated and repeatable process rather than a collection of unique, variable and inefficient manual tasks.  

 

WISHIN will soon launch an ROI (return on investment) calculator on its website to help organizations quantify the savings they can realize by participating in WISHIN. Look for more information in future editions of WISHIN Connections.
  
 

 

A Quick and Easy Way to Satisfy Stage 2 Meaningful Use for Immunization Public Health Reporting through WISHIN

 

WISHIN is pleased to announce that WISHIN Pulse customers can submit immunization data to the Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR) through WISHIN, which will qualify for the Stage 2 Meaningful Use Public Health immunization reporting objective. Later this year, WISHIN Pulse customers will have the additional benefit of being able to view immunization information within WISHIN Pulse.

 

Customers choosing to use WISHIN to submit immunization data to WIR must register with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH) at http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ehealth/PHMU/phmuregisterphreds.htm and choose WISHIN as a submission option. Customer registrations will be placed in a queue. As soon as resources are available, WISHIN will contact registered customers to begin the onboarding process. Once you are in the queue you can attest to this Meaningful Use Public Health immunization objective - even if you have not yet begun testing or achieved ongoing data submission.

 

Can Customers Meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 Objectives Simply by Being Registered?
 

Yes! Customers can meet their Meaningful Use Public Health immunization reporting objective if they are in one of the following statuses: 

  • Achieved ongoing data submission in Stage 1 and satisfied the Stage 2 Meaningful Use technical standards and specifications for ongoing data submission.
  • Achieved ongoing data submission during Stage 2.
  • In the process of onboarding at the end of the EHR reporting period.
  • In a queue awaiting an invitation to begin the onboarding process.

To meet one of the above statuses: 

  • Customers must register with DPH within 60 days of the beginning of their reporting period. For example, if a customer's reporting period began April 1, the customer must have registered by May 31, 2014. If a customer's reporting period begins July 1, the customer must complete registration by August 30, 2014. A customer can register at any time prior to the reporting period, but must complete registration by the 60-day cutoff date.
  • Customers must respond within 30 days to requests by DPH for action on two separate occasions. This means that, once WISHIN and DPH are ready to work with a customer to begin WIR onboarding, the customer must respond within 30 days, and continue prompt responses throughout the course of onboarding.
What about Other Public Health Reporting Measures?

 

WISHIN currently supports the Meaningful Use Public Health Syndromic Surveillance objective, and the above statuses also apply.

 

WISHIN does not currently support submission of required Electronic Lab Reports (ELR) or cancer case data to Public Health. For more information on submitting data for these public health meaningful use objectives, please go to the Department of Health Services web site.

 

For More Information:

 

Visit the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Public Health Meaningful Use pages at: http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ehealth/PHMU/index.htm

 

For information directly related to immunizations:

http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ehealth/PHMU/phmuimmunizations.htm

 

If you have questions or want to begin working with WISHIN, contact WISHIN at: wishin@wishin.org
March 2014
In This Issue
Quick Links
  
Products
 
WISHIN Pulse
WISHIN Pulse is a community health record that provides an aggregated summary view of a patient's health information from all providers that have seen the patient.  WISHIN Pulse is HIE technology that gives providers secure access to patients' medical information where and when they need it. 
  
Click here for more information on WISHIN Pulse
 
    
WISHIN Direct+
WISHIN Direct+ allows providers to easily connect and communicate with one another electronically across EMR systems.  Direct+ offers a suite of tools including Referrals and Secure Messaging to easily coordinate and exchange patient care. 
  
  
Click here for more information on WISHIN Direct+
Events

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Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network | 608-274-1820 wishin@wishin.org | http://www.wishin.org
PO Box 259038
Madison, WI 53725-9038

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