We are pleased to announce that Genaro Garza is now Mirth Certified. Being Mirth Certified gives RGV HIE the capability and knowledge needed to connect clinics and health organizations to exchange health information using the Mirth Connect Integration Engine.
As the “data steward” for the community to share patient health information, we have put in place processes and oversight to ensure privacy and security to facilitate the secure exchange of protected health information. Although most hospitals and providers have electronic health record (EHR) systems, most are not able to share information electronically among different EHR vendors. The result by default is most providers still fax copies of health records to each other.
Our Integration engine service offers an affordable solution for clinics and health organizations to share patient health information to meet current legislation requirements such as Meaningful Use, PCMH and MACRA. Essentially, you connect your EHR to the HIE one time and we can direct your data to any destination required at a reasonable fee. Our technology will enable your organization to have the option to participate in our HIE, disease registry, or quality reporting tool.
We are pleased to announce that RGVHIE will be working with Proyecto Juan Diego in support of the Group Lifestyle Balance Program. The Group Lifestyle Balance Program provides education, encouragement and the tools necessary to help individuals reach their healthy lifestyle goals. This program is designed for those, over 18 yrs of age, who are pre-diabetic or have a high risk for diabetes
RGV HIE will be providing population health analytics, quality reporting and care management solutions and services to help meet reporting requirements of the program.
Community service providers or nonprofit organizations such as Proyecto Juan Diego receive funding from a variety of sources, both public and private. To ensure money is well-spent, funders typically require grantees to report on specific metrics related to service provision, such as the number of clients being served, program outcomes, and improvements.
The RGV HIE can provide the technical infrastructure to support complex and extensive reports about the effectiveness of programs. We can help report on outcomes to demonstrate progress and justify ongoing and future funding
We are excited about this new collaboration and we are looking forward to continuing to serve the people in our community.
About Project Juan Diego
Proyecto Juan Diego was founded in 2003 by Sister Phylis Peters, Daughter of Charity. The organization was granted a 501 (c) 3 status with a mission to empower low income families to be healthy and self-sufficient in the community. Proyecto utilizes educational programs, family activities, and preventative health services to improve quality of life.
The staff provides a variety of services, including parenting classes, mentoring, anger management, and family development. Outreach and civic engagement activities include citizenship, GED, and English classes, Get Out the Vote efforts, leadership development, and youth development. Proyecto also offers services for diabetic and pre-diabetic patients, including self-management classes.
One of the most recent examples of the changing healthcare landscape is the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, or MACRA. This law is primarily focused on encouraging physicians to deliver valuable healthcare services to patients as part of the Affordable Care Act. With the first performance reporting period beginning on January 1, 2017, many physicians still have a lot of work to do to meet the requirements. Here is what you need to know.
What is MACRA?
MACRA replaces the current Medicare reimbursement schedule with a new pay-for-performance program that is focused on quality, value, and accountability. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stated that MACRA enacts a new payment framework that rewards health care providers for giving better care instead of more service. MACRA combines parts of the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Value-Baased Payment Modifier (VBM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive program into one single program called the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, or “MIPS.”
What is MIPS?
MIPS includes four performance categories: quality (50%), resource use (10%), advancing care information (25%), and clinical practice improvement activities (15%). These categories are used to evaluate a provider’s quality, use of services, EHR use, and quality improvements to care coordination and delivery. A provider’s quality score determines the payment adjustment in subsequent years. The payment adjustment is 4% in 2019, 5% in 2020, 7% in 2021, and 9% in 2022 and beyond.
Advanced care information: Health information measure
Under MACRA, Meaningful Use has been transformed as part of MIPS scoring. The new model includes an expanded APM track now known as Advanced APM. Advanced care information is significant because it contributes to 25% of the total score in year one. Clinicians can choose to report customizable measures that reflect how they use EHR technology in their day to day practice, with a particular emphasis on interoperability and information exchange.
How the RGV HIE can help
The RGV HIE offers an affordable solution for clinics and health organizations to share patient health information to meet current legislation requirements such as Meaningful Use, PCMH, and MACRA. Essentially, you connect your EHR to the HIE one time and we can direct your data to any destination required at a reasonable fee. Our technology will enable your organization to have the option to participate in our HIE, disease registry, or quality reporting tool.
Health Information Exchange (HIE) has the potential to change the way we provide and receive medical care. It will eliminate fatal medical errors and save lives. No wonder governments all over the world are promoting this practice.
The first step towards the exchange of medical information is the creation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). More and more service providers have started using EHRs. There is a common belief that the use of EHR will increase provider productivity, improve patient care, and decrease practice costs. Small practices may find the idea of converting to EHR fairly overwhelming, but technical and financial assistance is available to them.
Preventable medical errors cost the lives of thousands of patients each other. In fact, medical errors are claiming more lives than motor accidents, AIDS, and breast cancer combined. Miscommunication is the cause of 80 percent of these errors. It is time we created a system that provides more responsible care and facilitates better communication.
Health Information Exchange
The creation of a nationwide health information exchange (HIE) program will facilitate better communication among health care providers, staff, and patients. The objective of this program is to bring about revolutionary changes in the health care system. Effective implementation of HIE will ensure that each patient receives optimal care. HIE will optimize health outcome, improve patient experience, reduce health care costs, and increase provider satisfaction.
A robust EHR system is the cornerstone of HIE. A typical EHR system has the following components – the history and demographics of the patients, clinical notes of the physician, a comprehensive list of the medications and allergies of the patient, and computerized orders for prescriptions among others. In addition, EHR will enable the patient to see imaging and laboratory results electronically. The factors that limit the application of HIE are high financial investments, workflow redesign requirements, and an increase in the training time of the physician and the staff. In addition, health care facilities will probably have to employ new staff to provide HIE support. If these hurdles can be overcome, HIE will create a database of health information that will coordinate patient care and improve communication amongst health care providers about shared patients. The overall outcome will be beneficial to both the patients and the care providers.
Benefits of HIE include better access to health care, less paperwork for doctors and patients, better care, increase in administrative efficiency, decrease in the cost of healthcare, and prevention of deadly medical errors. HIE will also ensure that patients and their families are actively involved in their healthcare.
An electronic health record converts paper record into electronic format. This enables faster communication, clinical decision making, and recall. The use of EHR changes the way a practice communicates. It provides instant access to patient data and redesign workflows. There are several benefits to this. It will reduce transcription costs, and facilitate the easy identification of patients with specific needs and conditions.
E-prescribing is another aspect of this. This allows a physician to send an error-free and understandable prescription from the point-of-care to the pharmacy electronically. Health Information Exchange (HIE) technology is crucial to the success of this program. Proper HIE will enable the secure sharing of health care data between organizations.
Before they can create an HIE, organizations have to define their goals, align stakeholders, and focus on the various components that will make information exchange successful.
Where to start
A successful HIE program will create patient data that can be shared, tracked, and analyzed by physicians and other health care providers. Before plunging into HIE deployment, health care organizations should assess their readiness. They should ask themselves if they have the right technology. They should analyze the current structure of the organization to see where new staff has to be incorporated. Organizations should also identify medical trading partners.
“The Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) proposed rule represents a fundamental change in the way healthcare is paid for and is aimed at establishing the infrastructure for value-based reimbursement.”
Texas HIE accreditation ensures adherence to data processing standards and compliance with security infrastructure, integrity and trusted identity requirements.
Harlingen, TX – May 03, 2016 – RGV HIE, The Rio Grande Valley Health Information Exchange (RGV HIE) is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating the efficient exchange of health information in order to improve the quality of patient care in South Texas, announced today it has achieved full accreditation with the Texas Health Information Exchange Accreditation Program (TX-HIEAP) from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) and the Texas Health Services Authority (THSA). Texas HIE Accreditation ensures HIEs within Texas are interoperable with state and federal programs, and provide the private, secure and proper exchange of health information in accordance with established laws and public policy.
Through the consultative review process, EHNAC and THSA evaluated RGV HIE in areas of privacy, security and confidentiality; technical performance; business practices and organizational resources as it relates to HIE participants in Texas. In addition, EHNAC and THSA reviewed the organization’s process of managing and transferring protected health information and determined that the organization meets or exceeds the necessary program criteria and industry standards. Through completion of the rigorous accreditation process, the organization demonstrates to its constituents its adherence to strict standards and participation in the comprehensive, objective evaluation of its business.
“The Texas HIE Accreditation Program ensures that organizations like RGV HIE meet the specific needs and legal requirements of the state, in addition to the national HIE program,” says Lee Barrett, executive director of EHNAC. “By achieving accreditation, RGV HIE has proven its commitment to the highest standards in privacy, security, confidentiality and sustainability in health information exchange, and we commend them on such a considerable accomplishment.”
“Increasing confidence and trust in organizations involved in exchanging and maintaining electronic health information will not only foster greater participation in HIEs, but also support sustainability of HIE efforts in Texas and across the United States,” stated Tony Gilman, CEO of the Texas Health Services Authority.
He continued, “I would like to commend RGV HIE for its work to support an interoperable, private, and secure HIE network.”
RGV HIE works with a variety of healthcare providers, including physicians, hospitals and specialists to ensure that critical health information is communicated in a consistent and secure manner.
About Organization
Electronic health information exchange, or HIE, is an efficient and secure way to share critical patient information with a variety of healthcare providers, including physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies. HIE is primarily used to improve treatment quality by giving healthcare providers the information they need to ensure that patients receive the best possible care.
About THSA
The Texas Health Services Authority is responsible for coordinating the implementation of health information exchange (HIE) in Texas. The THSA was created by the Texas legislature in 2007 as a public-private partnership, legally structured as a non-profit corporation, to support the improvement of the Texas health care system by promoting and coordinating HIE and health information technology (HIT) throughout the state to ensure that the right information is available to the right health care providers at the right times. For more information, visit www.HIETexas.org.
About EHNAC
The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) is a voluntary, self-governing standards development organization (SDO) established to develop standard criteria and accredit organizations that electronically exchange healthcare data. These entities include electronic health networks, payers, financial services firms, health information exchanges, medical billers, outsourced services, e-prescribing solution providers and direct trusted agents.
EHNAC was founded in 1993 and is a tax-exempt 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization. Guided by peer evaluation, the EHNAC accreditation process promotes quality service, innovation, cooperation and open competition in healthcare. To learn more, visit www.ehnac.org or contact info@ehnac.org. Connect with EHNAC on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.
As a healthcare provider, an HIE can help you increase revenue and profits by improving patient outcomes. With an HIE, you can ensure that you’re prescribing the right treatments and medications. Plus, your office will be more efficient because your staff won’t have to contact other healthcare providers for important patient information.
Learn more about how an HIE could benefit your practice in this infographic.
The RelayHealth Patient Portal makes it easier than ever to keep track of your health and connect with your care team.
With on-the-go Patient Portal access, you can get your important health information on any mobile device. The user-friendly interface gives you quick access to the tools and resources you use most. The Patient Portal is now also bilingual! Check out this great new video to learn more.
The patient experience no longer revolves around a single doctor or facility. You now have access to care across more settings than ever before.
Without HIE, it’s difficult for healthcare providers to gain an accurate picture of your overall health. Check out this video to learn how RelayHealth can solve this problem by connecting your important health information, no matter where it’s stored.
