As reported by the Sequoia Project www.sequoiaproject.org, over 1.5 million veterans enrolled with the Department of Veterans Affairs www.va.gov, have been identified as receiving part of their care with one or more of the Veteran Administration’s eHealth Exchange Community Healthcare Partners.
The eHealth Exchange www.ehealthexchange.com, managed by Sequoia, is a rapidly growing health data sharing network for securely sharing clinical information nationwide, spans all 50 states and is the largest clinical health data sharing network in the U.S.
Participants in the eHealth Exchange include large provider networks, hospitals, pharmacies, regional information exchanges, plus federal agencies. Medical records are available for bidirectional exchange between the VA and community clinicians for better care coordination with private sector healthcare providers.
The eHealth Exchange is the principal way that private sector healthcare providers are able to share health information with federal agencies to support patient care, quality assurance and disability programs. This network supports sharing health data to include medical histories, allergies, medications, procedures, family history, and other vital data points.
Veterans are required to sign an authorization form before the VA may release information to participating community providers. To date, 366,922 veterans out of 8.9 million enrolled in the VA healthcare system have opted in which represents only 4 percent of the veterans receiving care at the VA.
Congress is discussing a bill that would allow all veterans to be automatically opted into the health information exchange opening up the exchange to the available 8.9 million veterans. Veterans would then have their health information more readily accessible when they visit participating community care sites that include 19,000 clinics, 8,500 pharmacies, 600 labs, and 250 nursing homes.
The Sequoia Project will be holding their annual meeting December 5-6 2017 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center located outside of the Washington D.C area. Health IT leaders will attend from all over the U.S to be updated on Sequoia Project’s programs.
Go to http://sequoiaproject.org/annual-meeting for more information.