Today’s Health IT Business News Wrap-up

The Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN) has entered into an agreement with Surescripts allowing users of Surescripts’ Clinical Interoperability network to send electronic health information to the State of Michigan’s public health reporting systems through MiHIN and the Michigan Department of Community Health. MiHIN and Surescripts entered into an agreement based on the DirectTrust technical, legal, and business security and privacy standards for Healthcare Information Service Provider (HISP) connectivity.

The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) has announced today that it will be providing Program Management services to support the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) Last Mile Program. The Last Mile Program aims to stimulate adoption and use of State Health Information Exchange (HIE) to improve coordination of care and clinical outcomes while reducing costs. The ultimate goal of the program is to connect 50,000 providers in the state to The Massachusetts Health Information Highway (Mass HIway) over the next two years.

Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership (FMBHP) and Vree Health – a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. focused on technology-enabled services designed to improve the reach, cost-efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare – today announced a collaboration designed to improve care transitions and reduce hospital readmission rates for patients in rural areas. Over the coming months, FMBHP and Vree Health will develop new, improved processes for transitioning patients from hospital to home within at least 10 Montana communities that will be pilots to inform later programs.

Aegis Health Group, the nation’s leading provider of business development strategies for hospitals, has appointed William “Bill” Walker as chief technology officer. Walker joined Aegis in 2011 as vice president of information technology services.In his new role, Walker will lead Aegis’ expansion into new technological arenas that complement the healthcare industry’s whole-scale adoption of data-driven results and electronic health records.