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MA-HISPC Overview
Phase 1 MA-HISPC Project Background
Phase 2 MA-HISPC Consent Management Project
What's Happening in Massachusetts
Coming Soon - Roundtable Discussion
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MA-HISPC - What's Happening in Massachusetts
Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC)
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative was formed in 2004 as an initiative of the
physician community to bring together the state's major health care stakeholders for
the purpose of establishing an EHR system that would enhance the quality, efficiency
and safety of care in Massachusetts. The value of electronic health records is widely
acknowledged, but the significant capital and time required to implement such a system
are frequently cited as significant barriers to adoption. It has been estimated that
universal statewide adoption of EHRs would cost approximately $500 million. The
Collaborative is fortunate to have $50 million commitment from Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Massachusetts to fund its demonstration project phase. By pooling the resources,
talent, and experience of its 34 member organizations and participating pilot communities,
the Collaborative hopes to achieve a major leap forward in realizing its visions of better
care for the citizens of the Commonwealth.
MA-SHARE
Massachusetts SHARE (Simplifying Healthcare Among Regional Entities) is a regional
collaborative initiative operated by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. MA-SHARE
seeks to promote the inter-organizational exchange of healthcare data using information
technology, standards and administrative simplification, in order to make accurate clinical
health information available wherever needed in an efficient, cost-effective and safe manner.
MA-SHARE seeks to foster improvements in community clinical connectivity, allowing appropriate
sharing of inter-organizational healthcare data among the various participants in the healthcare
system - including patients, doctors and other practitioners, hospitals, government, insurers,
HMOs and other payors.
The MA-SHARE operating model is generally conceived as that of a facilitator and incubator,
in which projects exploring healthcare data connectivity will be undertaken in order to develop,
pilot and demonstrate new healthcare information technologies across communities and enterprises.
The MA-SHARE clinical connectivity vision is to design technology solutions that assemble,
organize and distribute a variety of up-to-date clinical information to a broad range of clinical
settings; all accomplished in a secure, confidential manner.
Recent MA-SHARE projects include:
- MedsInfo-ED
was a proof-of-concept clinical data exchange project that used prescription claims data to
deliver patient medication history to emergency department clinicians at the point of care.
This patient safety initiative conducted in 2004, was crucial in identifying numerous policy
and regulatory barriers to successful clinical data exchange. The lessons learned and
strategies to overcome the barriers are the focus of
this paper.
Through commitment and effective collaboration, MA-SHARE was able to address some of these
barriers that are embedded in existing government regulations and corporate business practice.
- Record Locator Service (RLS)
is the supporting technology that allows a network of provider clinical systems to securely share
patient medical record information among authorized users and within federal and state HIPAA
privacy and security regulations. The standards, interfaces, code, and methodology were documented
and placed in the public domain, so that the system could be adopted by interested providers and
third party vendors with a minimum of expense. The RLS’s development was funded by the Markle
Foundation as part of its Connecting for Health initiatives.
View the
project documentation here.
- Rx Gateway
is a single, secure gateway supporting all e-prescribing-related inquiries and transactions.
The Rx Gateway improves the speed of adoption, accuracy and value of e-prescribing applications
by electronically linking them with all major payers, prescription benefit managers, and
prescription dispensing locations, including retail pharmacies and mail order services.
- Interoperability Initiative was conceived
in December of 2006, when senior executives from four major healthcare delivery networks,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Boston, Lahey Clinic and Northeast
Health Systems, met to explore opportunities for “pushing” clinical patient data among clinicians
in their organizations. The six-month pilot will commence in the fall of 2007 and will
test the “push” data sharing model, which supports an organization’s ability to initiate the
forwarding of information to another person or organization. Unlike the “pull” model which
supports an organization’s ability to actively retrieve clinical data about a patient from
outside data sources, the push model electronically automates common, trusted business practices
(fax, mail, phone correspondence) between participating organizations.
Secure Architecture For Exchanging Health Information (SAFE Health)
In 2004, Fallon Clinic, Fallon Community Health Plan and UMass Memorial Health Care were
awarded a three-year, $1.4 million grant by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality to develop an innovative, community-led project for securely
sharing patient medical records in emergency and ambulatory settings. Because patient safety
dramatically improves when physicians have access to accurate and updated information, this
project aims to significantly improve health care quality, patient safety, and economic efficiency.
Masspro – DOQ-IT
Today, most hospitals have the capability and staff available to implement electronic
medical technology; however, this is not the same situation that exists for physician
offices. Many factors have contributed to this. Physician offices commonly cite the
cost of EHR systems, fear of choosing the wrong system, and implementation concerns,
as the primary reason for their failure to install electronic medical records.
Under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Masspro, through the CMS Doctor’s Office
Quality -Information Technology (DOQ-IT) initiative, is providing consulting services to
physician groups in Massachusetts to expedite the adoption of electronic health records.
To date, Masspro has successfully signed over 1,500 physicians, representing over 450
practices to the CMS DOQ-IT initiative.
New England Health EDI Network (NEHEN)
NEHEN is a consortium of regional payers and providers who have designed and implemented
a secure and innovative electronic-commerce solution for reducing administrative costs in
health care. NEHEN technology has changed the way administrative processes are performed
in member organizations.
The primary success factor for NEHEN has been the collaboration between health plans and
providers. The members of NEHEN believe that providing EDI (electronic data interchange)
capabilities to their trading partners represents an opportunity to improve administrative
processes for the entire health care community. As a result, all intellectual property
created for NEHEN is shared among the members. Also, if a member individually develops
a solution that might benefit the group, that solution is donated to NEHEN. Collaboration
has enabled the members to share costs, leverage experience gained by other participants,
and accelerate the benefits of administrative simplification.
For additional MA-HISPC Project information, please contact Diane Stone,
Project Manager, MA-HISPC Project via
e-mail. We welcome your further questions & look forward
to your participation in our work and our events!
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