SYNCRONYS eNewsletter – June 2022 

HEALTHCARE COORDINATION, ACCESSING AND SHARING DATA IS CRITICAL TO IMPROVING WELLNESS FOR ALL NEW MEXICANS

SYNCRONYS provides a statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) that allows authorized healthcare professionals, to access an individual’s health history in one centralized record. An average person sees 18 different doctors in his or her lifetime, without an HIE vital patient history can get lost in the shuffle. Data sharing improves quality of care, decreases healthcare cost, and improves the chances of saving lives by providing real-time, coordinated patient data.

Our Newest Partnerships 

New Mexico HIE Partners with Rural Hospital Network

SYNCRONYS is pleased to announce their business partnership with the New Mexico Rural Hospital Network.

“Our partnership will allow the exchange of healthcare information throughout New Mexico to make the best-informed decisions to deliver high-quality care to their patients,” said Terri Stewart, Chief Administrative Officer of SYNCRONYS, “the past two years of the pandemic highlighted the importance of timely access to information to both care for patients and manage a public health crisis.”

The New Mexico Rural Hospital Network (NMRHN) is a collaborative organization consisting of 11 rural hospitals with the mission to support and sustain quality healthcare.  Stephen Stoddard, Executive Director state, “this is exactly what we needed at this time, SYNCRONYS provides a great resource to our member hospitals, and we look forward to partnering with SYNCRONYS to launch the solutions for the hospitals.  A great benefit of this partnership is that each hospital can select the solutions that work for them and their community, it is not a one size fits all.”

SYNCRONYS is New Mexico’s designated health information exchange (HIE).  With the goal of demonstrating the value of an outcomes-based, use case-oriented HIE, New Mexico and federal stakeholders, this partnership further enhances SYNCRONYS to be a model for the country as states transition from the HITECH program into the next phase of clinical interoperability.

New Mexico HIE Partners with HealthXnet

SYNCRONYS announces its partnership with HealthXnet, providing real-time health insurance eligibility verification for a variety of health plans through the SYNCRONYS portal.  HIE subscribers can save valuable time and increase productivity on many levels by determining health plan member eligibility, and obtain specific information such as copays, and other benefit information.  Including information for patients covered by Medicaid.  “This partnership is yet another feature within SYNCRONYS bringing better data for better health and benefits all New Mexicans”, said Terri Stewart, Chief Administrative Officer of SYNCRONYS.  “We believe this feature is what our clinicians and providers need, and we are happy to partner with HealthXnet to bring it to them”.

Know Your Customer Relationship Manager

Our readers may remember we brought this segment to you with our first eNewsletter in 2021, our customer relationship managers bring our health information exchange solutions to our clients and are part of our Customer Engagement Team. We are excited to share we have two new team members to introduce you to.

Victor Miramontes joined the SYNCRONYS staff last fall and supports the hospitals in the areas of New Mexico east of I-25, and he has responsibilities for the Southeast Region of New Mexico.  Victor also works with imaging and diagnostic centers.  Victor enjoys having the ability to help people by sharing data and information, through our portal, to doctors and patients that helps provide better health care for New Mexicans.  He recently shared “image Exchange particularly gets me excited. With a background in diagnostic imaging, I know how hard it can be to share and obtain images from other facilities”.  In the community Victor enjoys going out for trash clean ups along our nature trails and decided what better way to fix the problem then cleaning it up. He benefits from exercise, a beautiful hike, and a chance to make nature look better. For his hobbies, Victor stated “I have been told by my wife that my hobbies are too expensive, and I have many! I love photography, gardening, playing guitar, gaming, golfing, hiking, and traveling to name a few”.

Benton Dwight, who joined our team this spring, Benton’s area of focus as a Customer Relationship Manager is with the Payers, ACO’s, Specialty Clinics, Ambulatory Clinic Groups/Systems, and Ambulatory Clinics.  He enjoys being able to be a pioneer for the betterment of healthcare. Working with amazing colleagues that support each other and share common goals and building strong, long-lasting relationships. For his customers, Benton state he “would want to share the amazing capabilities of the HIE portal and how their participation in connecting to the HIE and becoming data providers is so vital and beneficial to the betterment of healthcare for all New Mexico:”.  In the community Benton enjoys going to concerts and local events and his free time is spent enjoying outdoor activities with family such as camping and fishing and also enjoys playing basketball, tennis, and rock climbing.  When not being physically active reading and researching topics of interest keep Benton busy.

News around the nation. 

May 20, 2022 – (the following is an abbreviated version of the article that appeared on ehrintelligence.com)

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are well-situated to help healthcare organizations achieve the triple aim of value-based care—improving population health management strategies, providing better care for individuals, and reducing healthcare costs.

Value-based care is a form of reimbursement that ties payments for care delivery to the quality of care provided and rewards providers for efficiency and effectiveness. This form of payment has emerged as an alternative and potential replacement for the fee-for-service reimbursement model, which pays providers for services delivered based on bill charges or annual fee schedules.

Value-based care models center on patient outcomes and how well healthcare providers can improve care quality, compared to the traditional fee-for-service model, which pays providers based on the volume of services they deliver.

While value-based care can improve overall patient outcomes, hospitals assume more risk than traditional fee-for-service models. This increased risk has led many hospitals and health systems to leverage health IT and join HIEs to manage care to maximize the potential for success.

SUPPORT POPULATION HEALTH INITIATIVES

HIE allows providers to share patient medical information through a secure exchange network that is EHR-agnostic, meaning that healthcare providers can share information from different EHR systems.

A more complete picture of the patient population can help providers better coordinate care. Identifying gaps in care and working to close them can help hospitals improve the quality of care they deliver— staple in value-based care.

The report noted that in 2021, participating HIE providers utilized patient record lookup more than 6.5 million times to access a consenting patient’s EHR data instantly.

Additionally, the HIE delivered more than 950,000 clinical results, such as lab tests and radiology reports and images, to providers monthly. Officials said that this marks a 10 percent increase over 2020.

The HIE saw increased utilization of its community population health tool,

BOOST CARE COORDINATION

Joining an HIE can help healthcare organizations succeed in value-based reimbursement models by boosting care coordination.

An op-ed published in the Journal of AHIMA notes that HIEs support care coordination by providing clinicians with up-to-date patient health data in real-time, which can prevent excess hospital admissions and readmissions.

When a provider sees a new patient, the patient often arrives with incomplete clinical information.

However, being part of an HIE allows providers to easily access a patient’s clinical data from across the care continuum.

Providers can also generate and monitor a worklist of seriously ill patients seen regularly by multiple providers (like cancer patients and transplant patients) through the HIE to track their care.

Additionally, viewing diagnostic tests in the HIE helps eliminate redundancy and lower patient discomfort and healthcare costs.

“Within a day in the life, HIEs enhance providers’ ability to deliver proactive care rather than just reactive care,” the op-ed authors explained.

Brian Dixon, PhD, MPA, director of public health informatics at Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, presented how HIE can support care coordination at the HIMSS 2022 Global Conference.

Primary care providers often don’t have access to information about the care their patients receive outside of their office, especially if patients seek care in a different health system.

For instance, patients can go to the hospital and get released, and their PCP would have no idea, leaving patients to reach out to their provider on their own for critical follow-up care.

According to a survey of PCPs, physicians are notified less than half the time about patient hospitalizations, potentially putting their patients’ safety at risk.

“Especially after a major event such as a hospitalization, patients need to discuss recovery plans, changes in medication and other important details with their primary care provider,” Dixon noted in a press release.

“But often, as patients get back in their normal routine, they forget to follow up with their doctor, or they are feeling better and assume they don’t need to, which is risky, especially for older adults,” he added.

Dixon recently conducted a study that found HIE-based alerts sent to primary care providers boosted the primary care team’s follow-up rate in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system.

Compared to usual care, veterans whose primary care team received notification of non-VA acute care encounters were four times more likely to have phone contact within seven days, and two times more likely to have an in-person visit within 30 days.

“The alerts prompted the care teams to be more proactive in closing the care coordination loop, and patients feel more valued when the provider reaches out to them,” said Dixon.

REDUCE HEALTHCARE COST                                     

By delivering on population health initiatives and supporting care coordination, HIEs can help healthcare organizations cut downstream costs.

A 2018 systematic review of studies of health information exchanges found evidence the exchanges reduced the cost of healthcare.

The new findings “represent progress in reaching the national goals of better-quality care, improved population health, and lower costs,” Nir Menachemi, a professor in the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI and the study’s lead investigator, said in a public statement at the time of the announcement.

Benefits from the review include fewer duplicated procedures, reduced imaging, lower costs, and improved patient safety.

“Up until this point, the promise of health information exchanges to improve care and reduce costs has been theoretical,” said Menachemi, who also serves as chair of the school’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “We now have reasonably strong evidence that there are benefits to using health information exchanges.”

HIE membership can also help healthcare organizations hit cost-saving goals by sharing technology and promoting innovation. Joining a health information exchange comes with a membership fee, for lack of better term, and for smaller organizations that cost can be prohibitive. Through innovative HIE programs, that cost can be divided among healthcare organizations.

As the digital health transformation continues, HIE membership could help healthcare providers reach their value-based care goals.

There are many models and business approaches emerging to support HIE, including regional, local, or state nonprofit or government-sponsored exchange networks and exchange options offered by EHR vendors.

Healthcare organizations looking to join an HIE should first determine which service providers are available to them keeping in mind the mission and goals of their organization, according to ONC.

Stakeholders should gather information on the sustainability of the HIE, internal requirements of participating in the HIE, and which forms of exchange the HIE supports, ONC officials noted.

If you would like more information about items in our newsletter or any other solution SYNCRONYS provides, please contact us at info@syncronys.org, and our website is always open at syncronys.org.