The Ann Arbor Area Health Information Exchange is moving into the pay-for-performance realm with help from a two-and-a-half-year-old data-sharing technology deployment.
The Michigan HIE went live with NextGen Healthcare’s Community Health Solution in the second half of 2005. The product provides a central data repository that lets physicians securely exchange patient data, the company said. HIEs can also use NextGen CHS to track patient safety and quality initiatives.
The Community Health Solution lets the HIE’s four member practices collect quantitative and qualitative data on patients. With the data, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan developed a series of clinical indicators that set the HIE on the pay-for-performance path, said Charles Jarvis, assistant vice president of healthcare industry services and government relations at NextGen, a subsidiary of Quality Systems. He pointed to the frequency of examination for a diabetes patient as an example of a clinical indicator.
Jarvis said the next step for the consortium is to expand the system and bring on more practices. He said he believes the pay-for-performance effort will also grow during the next few years, as practices gather larger, more sophisticated data sets.
NextGen has installed its Community Health Solution at 12 sites. The Ann Arbor HIE is the first customer for the product. Key lessons NextGen has carried forward from the Ann Arbor HIE project include the need to customize the system for individual practices and the importance of buy-in among physicians, Jarvis said.
Government Health IT presents Rick Friedman, director of the division of state systems for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in this recent eSeminar regarding how the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with state Medicaid and health and human services officials to bring Medicaid into the digital age. Paul McCloskey, Government Health IT editor, moderates.
