According to the “Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority’s” www.paehealth.org Annual Report submitted December 2015 to the Governor and General Assembly, the key responsibility of the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority is to establish the statewide Health Information Exchange which is called the “Pennsylvania Patient & Provider Network” (P3N).
St. Luke’s University Health Network’s eVantageHealth, ClinicalConnect HIE, HealthShare Exchange, and Keystone Health Information Exchange all in Pennsylvania are committed to participating in the P3N. Three additional Health Information Organizations (HIO) are expected to complete the onboarding process.
Once all HIOs go live in the P3N, over 70 acute care hospitals, many physicians, and other providers will be connected to the P3N through their participating HIO. It is expected that Pennsylvania will achieve the widespread exchange of health information nationwide by December 31, 2018.
The “Public Health Gateway” (PHG) a component of the P3N is operational. PHG enables HIOs, providers, and facilities to use a single connection point to securely electronically report health information to various agencies within the Commonwealth.
In early 2015, the Authority in cooperation with the state Department of Human Services (DHS) www.dhs.pa.gov and the Department of Health (DOH) www.health.pa.gov submitted electronic lab results to the DOH’s Electronic Lab Reporting Registry. This information expands the PHG to include immunization, cancer, and syndromic surveillance registries.
The Authority is working with six states bordering Pennsylvania and has made progress in Ohio and West Virginia to prevent geographical borders from presenting obstacles. So far, the Authority and these two states have reached an agreement to connect the three states via the eHIE.
In another move, the Authority with CMS funding support the build-out of the PHG. CMS has also provided funding to allow the Authority to offer grants to private-sector HIOs. This will help to increase their membership and support their sustainability models, incentivize HIOs to join the P3N, support rapid movement towards active participation in the eHIE, and defray up-front costs for individual providers to join an HIO.
Go to www.paehealth.org to view the Annual Report sent to the Governor and General assembly on December 9, 2015. For additional information email ra-paehealth@pa.gov or go to http://twitter.com/paehealth.