Letter from NYeC Executive Director, Valerie Grey
Welcome to the sixth issue of the SHIN-NY Spotlight, our update on the progress the state is making in advancing New York’s health information exchange (HIE), the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY).
We have been busy working towards the goals outlined in the SHIN-NY 2020 Roadmap, collaborating with our stakeholders and partners to implement the strategies we identified to ensure that the SHIN-NY fulfills its vision of transforming healthcare and the health of our communities. The Roadmap sets ambitious goals and employs a variety of tools, including new performance-based contracting, policy changes, and collective advocacy to continue to move our state’s HIE forward.
In February, we released a preliminary report with three of our Qualified Entity (QE) partners, looking at one of the SHIN-NY core services, real-time patient care alerts, and their role in expanding patient record queries (patient record lookup), another core service. Researchers found that subscription alert services increased by 95 percent from 2016 to 2017. At the same time, query-based exchanges prompted by alerts increased by 102 percent.
Speaking of alerts, we recently announced the expansion of patient care alerts across the state’s eight QEs through the SHIN-NY. The statewide expansion of this service further enhances the SHIN-NY’s patient care coordination capabilities and creates an integral resource in improving health and care delivery, including reducing hospital readmissions, throughout the state.
NYeC continues to advocate for steps we can collectively take to further advance and align state and national interoperability efforts. We have responded to a number of calls for public feedback, providing comments on the Draft Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement and the proposed changes from CMS to address interoperability, patient data access, and health information exchange. I also continue to serve on a number of committees aimed at improving healthcare including the ONC’s Federal Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) and, recently, the Interoperability Standards Priorities Task Force (ISPTF).
We’re excited to continue to expand our assistance programs to help providers optimize care delivery. These programs, including the Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP) to increase HIE adoption, Medicaid Eligible Professional Program (EP2) to achieve Promoting Interoperability (formerly Meaningful Use) objectives, and the new New York State Patient-Centered Medical Home (NYS PCMH) Recognition Program, are key to our efforts to increase connectivity and support the SHIN-NY’s overarching goals. Updates about these programs can be found below.
We also recently published a SHIN-NY 101 infographic explaining how the SHIN-NY facilitates secure and confidential sharing of patient data across the healthcare system to improve outcomes. Finally, we published a new white paper, The Case for Payer Participation in Health Information Exchange, which details the value of health information exchange for payer organizations.
We’re excited to continue working together to support value-based care, enable digital health advancement and innovation, and drive performance improvement consistent with our mission, ultimately helping providers and plans keep communities healthier. Thank you for your ongoing collaboration!
Take care,
Valerie Grey
Executive Director
New York eHealth Collaborative