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HEALTHeLINK™ Awarded $5.2 Million in HEAL NY Funding

Western New York Clinical Information Exchange will use funds to expand Health Information IT in Western New York

BUFFALO, NY - HEALTHeLINK™, the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange was awarded $5.2 Million in state funding today to help further develop and expand a technology infrastructure on which important clinical information may be shared among healthcare providers. The funding is part of $105 Million made available to 19 leading community-based health information technology projects across the state.

“This funding will help us continue the important work of taking valuable clinical information out of the paper files and getting it into the hands of the clinicians who need it to effectively care for their patients,” said Dr. Michael Cropp, President & CEO of Independent Health and HEALTHeLINK™ Chair.

“We are very excited, this funding is critical to our ability to bring the benefits of electronic medical records to underserved and at risk communities by providing technology and access to clinical information to a wide range of safety-net providers,” said Daniel E. Porreca, Executive Director for HEALTHeLINK™.

As one of the grant recipients, HEALTHeLINK™ will build a technical infrastructure that will support health care improvements for Western New Yorkers, while ensuring the privacy and security of health information.

The projects awarded funding selected the following clinical goals to guide the technical implementation ensuring that clinicians gain upfront, consistent value from the vastly improved availability and use of health information, including:

• Medicaid: Linking Medicaid data to interoperable electronic health records so that clinicians may electronically receive a patient's Medicaid-reimbursed prescriptions, Medicaid eligibility and recertification period, as well as Medicaid's preferred drugs. This will allow clinicians to prescribe medications electronically and make informed decisions about appropriate and lower-cost therapeutically equivalent medicines at the time the prescription is ordered. It will also provide clinical decision support alerts, such as drug interactions, to improve care and reduce costs.
• Public Health: Linking electronic health records to the New York State Immunization Registry to ensure seamless reporting of immunization records to improve children’s health. Embedding prevention measures in electronic health records for reporting to clinicians and public health officials will help transform New York’s health care system from a focus on disease care to one focused on prevention. Exchanging information among public health officials and providers to achieve automated and streamlined public health monitoring and reporting will reduce costs.
• Patients: Helping New Yorkers have greater control over and access to their personal health information by connecting patients and clinicians through personal health records and other patient-focused tools.
• Quality of Care: Implementing quality measurement and reporting capabilities, which includes shared infrastructure among payers and providers to collect and assess information about performance and outcomes to support new prevention and outcome-based reimbursement models.

State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D., said: “We congratulate all the projects and look forward to working with them to achieve these important clinical goals. The best evidence is that, when used as intended, interoperable electronic health records support clinicians in making fact-based decisions so medical errors and redundant tests can be reduced and the coordination of care can be improved.”

HEALTHeLINK™ is a collaborative consortium that includes The Catholic Health System, The Erie County Medical Center Corporation, HealthNow New York, Inc., Independent Health Association, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Univera Healthcare as its Charter Members and primary financial supporters. Additional non-funding representatives from physician groups, rural healthcare providers, educators, business, and government agencies actively participate in HEALTHeLINK™.

New York State awarded a $3.5 million grant to the group under HEAL NY legislation in May 2005. Combined with matching funds from the organizations’ seven founding members, the initiative is designed to lay the foundation for a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) through the development of electronic medication prescribing (e-prescribing), a diagnostic data exchange, and a clinical information exchange.

About HEALTHeLINK™

HEALTHeLINK™ is a unique collaboration among physician, hospital, and insurance organizations to share clinical information in efficient and meaningful ways to improve the delivery of care, enhance clinical outcomes, and control healthcare costs throughout the region. HEALTHeLINK™ is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization. HEALTHeLINK™ supports and is working toward the vision of creating community-based virtual medical records and other clinical applications.