Starting February 1, 2017, all Medicaid contracted hospitals and providers will be required to participate in Washington’s new clinical data sharing program, called Link4Health. Link4Health is a Health Care Authority (HCA) initiative that will require providers who care for Medicaid patients to share certain clinical records electronically with HCA via a clinical data repository. HCA is partnering with OneHealthPort, the state health information exchange, on this work. The mandate for participation will be included in the new HCA contracts with Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.
WSHA is aware of significant concerns from hospitals that existing, federally certified electronic health record (EHR) systems are unable to comply with the technical requirements of the clinical data repository. We are engaged in active conversation with HCA and OneHealthPort to address these concerns. WSHA supports the opportunities the information exchange holds for patient care and hopes we can find a solution that our members can implement.
We are also working with HCA staff to better inform our members about the new opportunities and requirements. We will send out communications about hospital-specific opportunities to engage with HCA and OneHealthPort on this topic. In addition, HCA and OneHealthPort currently provide two monthly webcasts, one technical and one for providers. Here are links to register for each:
Technical (https://onehealthport.formstack.com/forms/cdr_technical_webcast_registration)
Provider (https://onehealthport.formstack.com/forms/cdr_clinical_webcast_registration)
HCA also provides a monthly newsletter with updates on Link4Health. (Zosia Stanley, zosias@wsha.org)
