HIE Rundown – 7-26-19

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin July 26, 2019

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is happening every minute of every day. Your personal health information is moving and being viewed to improve the quality of your healthcare and lower the costs. The job will not be complete until all health records are digital and interoperable. Here’s what’s happening to make that reality.

Events

HL7

SHIEC

Health Catalyst

The Healthcare Analytics Summit 19
When: September 10-12, 2019
Where: The Grand America Hotel, Salt Lake City UT
Hashtag: #HAS19
Register for this event.

The future of healthcare digitization is exciting and transformative, and data will be the foundation to accelerate that change. HAS 19 will showcase data as both a fundamental survival strategy and as an innovative approach for thriving in the new world of digital healthcare.

News and Noted

Interoperability Standards Advisory: 2019 Request for Comments
We know it’s been a busy year for your reviewing and commenting on our 21st Century Cures Act Proposed Rule and the latest draft documents associated with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). But don’t put your proverbial pen down yet! Summer is the time for the annual Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) comment and review period. The ONC needs your comments on revisions and additions you suggest we make to the current content in the ISA. We are looking for your recommendations before we take a “snapshot” of the ISA toward the end of the year. Any comments we receive will be reviewed for inclusion and the ISA will then be updated and posted on our website – referred to as the 2020 Reference Edition.

Trusted Network Accreditation Program (TNAP) Releases Accreditation Criteria for Public Review
The Trusted Network Accreditation Program (TNAP) collaborative announced a 60-day public comment and review period of the draft criteria for its accreditation program. Established in July 2018, the collaborative seeks to align this accreditation program with the 21st Century Cures Act as well as Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) draft provisions recently released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Visit EHNAC to review the TNAP criteria and submit feedback during this comment period through the Criteria Comment Form.

ONC Report – Interoperability among Office-Based Physicians in 2015 and 2017

OCR HIPAA Right of Access FAQs: The HHS Office for Civil Rights released FAQs about the HIPAA right of access as it relates to apps designated by individual patients and application programming interfaces used by a healthcare provider’s electronic health record system. Read the OCR Patient Right of Access FAQs.

HIE and Standards Organizations

The Sequoia Project
The Sequoia Project (@SequoiaProject) was chartered to advance the implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The ONC transitioned management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance. Since 2012, the Exchange has grown to become the largest health information exchange network in the country.

The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
SHIEC (@SHIEClive) is the National Trade Association for Health Information Exchange Organizations. It is routine for important data about patients’ ongoing care to reside in multiple unconnected organizations. SHIEC member HIEs use information technology and trusted relationships in their service areas to enable secure, authorized exchange of patient information among disparate providers. By providing enhanced access to all available and relevant patient data SHIEC HIE members aim to improve the quality, coordination, and cost-effectiveness of health care provided in their communities. Read their news feed.

The CommonWell
CommonWell Health Alliance (@CommonWell) is devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to individuals and providers regardless of where care occurs. Additionally, provider access to this data must be built-in health IT at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the people they serve.

Welcome to the newest CommonWell Members: Diameter Health (@DiameterHealth), Particle Health, and WellHive (@WellHive).

To Read

eHealth Initiative
eHI’s Policy Guy Summarizes Comments on ONC & CMS Interoperability Proposals – By Mark Segal – June saw the end of exhaustive and exhausting comment periods on interoperability-focused proposed rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Centers from Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), discussed in my prior blog. The annual CMS Medicare hospital payment proposed rule also touched on interoperability issues and the physician-focused annual proposed rule is expected imminently.

Mobisoft
7 Benefits of Health Information Exchange (HIE) With Potential Challenges? – By Shailendra Sinhasane – Technological advancements in the healthcare industry continue to provide new ways to improve the quality of care delivered to the patients while advancing the state of the global digital healthcare system. Information technology has significantly contributed to the healthcare industry with the increasing use of telehealth services, electronic medical records, and mobile technologies.

Highlighted Guest Posts

Healthcare’s Dilemma with Provider Data Hurts Patients, Progress – By Andy Aroditis (@NextGate) – Unreliable, contaminated provider data carries with it significant financial, operational and reputational risk. As healthcare swings from a fragmented, fee-for-service model to a highly-coordinated, value-based delivery system, the need for high-quality provider data becomes more critical than ever.

Will HIEs Become the Next Route 66 When TEFCA Arrives? – By Buff Colchagoff (@rosettahealth) – With the ONC planning on releasing the next iteration of TEFCA this year, many HIEs are likely very concerned about the potential impact of this federally-constructed interoperability initiative. At recent conferences, we have repeatedly heard concerns about how there will be a list of winners and losers when it comes to TEFCA. What immediately comes to mind is the image of merchants on the old Route 66 being bypassed by the new and vastly larger interstate highways.

CommonWell: The End of the Beginning – By Jitin Asnaani (@CommonWell) – A little over six years ago, a group of EHR vendors came together to conceive of a unique collaborative effort with a single Vision in mind: that care data should follow the individual, regardless of where care has occurred – regardless of care setting, regardless of HIT platform, regardless of the barriers that have evolved as a consequence of our dysfunctional healthcare economy. As technologists, we had a chance to be enablers of meaningful change, and our bold idea was simply to seize it.

Why Healthcare Has Passed the Tipping Point for Cloud Adoption – By Chris Bowen (@cleardatacloud) – Much of the US healthcare system is broken. Following cancer and heart disease, medical errors comprise the number three (#3) leading cause of death in the U.S. Behind this disaster is a fractured and aged infrastructure, inadequate data security and HIPAA compliance, and stifling medical data sprawl. There was a time when healthcare IT teams could handle their own data scaling and security in warehouses or even in the cloud.

Resources

4 Emerging Trends in Patient Identification

The issue of inadequate patient matching and duplicate records has grown increasingly complex as more data is generated and more applications are introduced into the healthcare environment. As data sharing matures and the industry pivots toward value, an enterprise view of patient information is essential for informed clinical-decision making, effective episodic care, and a seamless patient-provider experience during every encounter.

Download this eBook by NextGate to see how developing technologies are shaping patient matching efforts today and into the future.

HealthDataAnswers.net

eHealth Initiative Resource Center
Interoperability Files – Check out the new white paper resource in the eHealth Initiative’s (@eHealthDC) Resource Center: Replacing an EHR comes with many challenges and costs

ONC Interoperability Pledge
Companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by hospitals nationwide as well as the top five largest health care systems in the country have agreed to implement three core commitments: Consumer Access, No Blocking/Ensuring Transparency, and Standards. The ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) wants vendors to sign a pledge. Is your vendor pledging? Find out who is on the list.