Abstract:
The State of New Mexico expects to establish a cooperative agreement with the federal government to accelerate expansion of New Mexico???s health information exchange network to serve all health care and public health stakeholders. The goal of this cooperative agreement, as authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), is to facilitate and expand the secure electronic movement and meaningful use of health information among health care organizations according to nationally recognized standards. The agreement calls for the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC), the State???s designated HIE, to coordinate and implement the expansion over the next four years.
NMHIC???s objectives include network services to share clinical information via NMHIC, share administrative information via HealthXnet, and offer e-prescribing network services that have been facilitated by New Mexico Medical Review Association/New Mexico Prescription Improvement Coalition and provided by SureScripts. These types of network services have demonstrated potential for improving health care quality, efficiency, costs, and patient privacy in several leading edge communities. NMHIC will work collaboratively with the State???s Human Services Department (Medicaid), Department of Health, the expanding statewide Southwest Telehealth Access Grid, other health information networks, health care providers, payers, employers, and consumers to ensure benefits of this state HIE network are delivered to all sectors of New Mexico???s two million population.
NMHIC is staffed and operated by non-profit Lovelace Clinic Foundation (LCF). LCF/NMHIC has established operating interfaces with Presbyterian Healthcare Services (the largest health care provider in the state, sustaining seven metropolitan and rural hospitals and the largest medical group), TriCore Reference Laboratories (the largest clinical testing and pathology reference laboratory in the state), and rural Holy Cross Hospital in Taos. During the last 12 months, NMHIC processed over 25 million transactions from these organizations, with more than 880,000 unique patient identities. NMHIC also demonstrated sharing summary patient records, lab results, and emergency responder information as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Trial Implementations in 2008. NMHIC plans to establish clinician user access to the NMHIC Portal by March 2010, including interactions with HealthXnet and SureScripts. HealthXnet, a division of the New Mexico Hospital Association, has been in production for several years, providing eligibility, health claims, and other claim-related network services. HealthXnet processed over 7 million transactions in 2008. The SureScripts network reports that New Mexico had 134,320 electronic prescription transactions during 2008, with 316 active prescribers and 219 participating pharmacies as of May 2009.
NMHIC, with its history of community collaboration, is well positioned to use new funding from the cooperative agreement for immediate network expansion and overall project coordination. HIE network services will be expanded to serve more than fifty acute care hospitals, more than four thousand active licensed medical practitioners, and the public health functions of the State Department of Health. In addition, these funds will be used to coordinate with the ARRA-funded Health Information Technology Regional Center that will promote meaningful use of health care information technology among health care providers in New Mexico.
