Purposeful Collaboration in Support of Better Health
How HealtheConnections and its partners are leveraging collective expertise to support emerging regional and statewide priorities.
With the onset of Medicaid 1115 Waiver activities coming soon, organizations throughout the state are working together to prepare for these next steps toward a healthier New York. At the center of these conversations is the exchange of health information, collection of social needs data, and bridging the gap between clinical and community organizations – essential for reducing disparities and promoting health equity throughout New York State’s diverse, unique communities.
HealtheConnections has facilitated data movement between regional clinical and community organizations since 2010, building a health information exchange network of more than 1,600 participating organizations and 14,000 licensed clinicians. This is important to note because data movement on that scale is not simple – it requires regular assessment, refinement, and monitoring to successfully meet changing standards. We leverage a combination of experience including data quality, data architecture, and clinical informatics to work through new challenges for medical teams and community health professionals.
It’s foundational to our mission to continuously deliver faster, more comprehensive, and more useful information in support of better health. As a member of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY), we are well positioned to continue that work regionally and alongside other statewide partners on similar initiatives and collaborative opportunities.
Preparing for Medicaid 1115 Waiver Priorities
The Waiver’s efforts aim to reduce health disparities, promote health equity, and integrate health and social care into the Medicaid system. HealtheConnections and its peers in the SHIN-NY are combining decades of experience to support data strategy and governance, as well as to establish standards, calculate measures, and facilitate data movement across regional networks. HealtheConnections is an active participant in ongoing discussions about the next steps and pledged our support for the organizations that intend to apply for leadership roles once the final version is released.
Conversations and preparations for the Waiver have been ongoing. Learn what it is and why it’s important here.
Standardizing Best Practices for Sensitive Data
There are ongoing, unified efforts towards standardization in health information exchange throughout the SHIN-NY, a key example of which is ensuring sensitive data is securely shared and accessed.
HealtheConnections spearheaded a statewide sensitive data segmentation project with the goal of researching and developing standard approaches for identification and handling of sensitive data, such as Part 2 data and mental health information. With these data, there are more regulations to comply with and it requires a higher level of role-based access and/or patient consent in order to share.
We recently shared how we worked with our colleagues to prepare for the collection of important social needs data – read more about this here.
We met monthly with the statewide team made up of the other regional health information exchanges, conducting thorough research on how each of us was currently handling these data and leveraging collective expertise. The outcome was a set of best practices for all SHIN-NY members to use when connecting data sources with sensitive data, such as hospital systems or behavioral health facilities. HealtheConnections has already begun implementing these new standards in our region to help participants properly identify and share these data so we can ensure compliance and patient privacy is met.
Statewide Public Health Workgroup Activities
The Waiver is shining a spotlight on local health departments and the ability to access and use data in the public health space. HealtheConnections is participating in a Public Health Workgroup led by the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) to explore effective utilization of HIE data for emerging public health strategies.
The key value of this workgroup is its collaborative nature and diverse participation, including all six regional health information exchanges in the state, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), and other external advisors.
A primary focus is public health surveillance, discussing how we can use health information exchange infrastructure and data movement strategies to advance public health priorities in new, valuable ways. The workgroup is continuing to meet regularly to share ideas and perspectives, including how to best support the 1115 Waiver and our local health departments.
Continuing to Build Upon a Strong HIE Network
This work is a natural expansion to ongoing partnerships and experience solving clinical-community challenges. As healthcare and public health needs continue to shift, we’re committed to working with those in our region and throughout the state who share these goals. Stay tuned for updates as our efforts continue.
We’re a proud partner with thousands of clinical, public health, and community-based organizations participating in our HIE network and many other stakeholders beyond it. To connect with us or explore new ways to work together, contact support@healtheconnections.org.
