OHIP Releases Health Information Exchange White Paper

The Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP), released a White Paper, September 23, explaining how a health information exchange (HIE) will operate in Ohio.

Entitled, "What is OHIP's Strategy and How We Can Help You," the document summarizes key points contained in OHIP’s HIE State Plan and answers basic questions about what the exchange is intended to do and how it will be implemented.  The detailed plan, submitted to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) in August, contains critical information about Ohio's strategic and operational plans for the HIE.  The full document will be released to the public sometime in 2011 after it is approved by ONC.

OHIP’s state HIE will allow clinical data to travel among health care systems that would otherwise not be connected. The exchange will also provide efficiency and cost savings through core services that will begin to be implemented in summer, 2011. Initial core serves will involve the establishment of a Master Patient Index (MPI), Master Provider/Entity Index, Record Locator Services and Trust Enablement. 

Then, under Phase I, OHIP will provide services to achieve meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), including e-prescription, structured lab results, patient care summaries, quality measures, registry and surveillance data, and integration with OHIP’s preferred EHR vendors. 

Phase II  address services to achieve administrative efficiencies, such as advanced insurance eligibility verification and connectivity, coordination of benefits(COB) including Rx, pre-authorization and referral routing, advanced claim status and remittance coordination, and payor/employer treatment cost and screening information. 

Phase III will be designed to achieve enhanced integrations, including advanced data aggregation and reporting, National Health Information Network connectivity, consumer integration and support, community web portals, and address verification eligibility. 

"The Ohio Osteopathic  Association is pleased to me a founding member of OHIP; we are committed to working with health care providers and facilities to enable the secure exchange of healthcare information to eliminate duplicative tests and enhance patient safety," said OOA Executive Director Jon Wills.  "We have a talented team of staff members working hard at OHIP to make the exchange a reality, and we are proud of their untiring efforts to achieve our goals."

OHIP is a non-profit entity that was created at the direction of Governor Strickland to assist Ohio physicians and other providers with the implementation and adoption of health information technology. It was founded by the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Osteopathic Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, BioOhio, and the State of Ohio.

OHIP was awarded $14,8 million by the federal government in December 2009, to develop a state HIE.  The funding was made possible as part of the HITECH provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) of 2009.

For a complete copy of the white paper, click here:  HIE White Paper.