Health insurer Highmark has dropped plans to develop and operate an independent, statewide electronic network for exchanging medical records among doctors and hospitals, opting instead to build closer relationships with health care providers to address broader patient care and safety issues.
“We are moving to a population health model with providers,” spokesman Aaron Billger said. “We believe it doesn’t have to be a competitive issue. This is about community health.”
In 2012, Highmark announced plans to develop a statewide network that would allow doctors to retrieve medical records, regardless of which hospital in the state the patient was admitted. The network would prevent duplicative medical testing and speed retrieval of medical records.
Also in 2012, Highmark rival UPMC joined 10 other hospital systems in creating ClinicalConnect, a competing health information exchange, with membership that includedArmstrong County Memorial Hospital, Butler Health System and Excela Health. ClinicalConnect’s partner in the effort was downtown Pittsburgh-based dbMotion Inc., a web-based data sharing technology outfit, and the network recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority’s Patient and Provider Network, opening the door to linking with hospitals and doctors statewide.
Through the agreement, ClinicalConnect will also be able to tap the Public Health Gateway, a single point of contact for reporting to the state’s various registries, including cancer, immunization, disease surveillance and electronic laboratory reporting. In addition to ClinicalConnect, two other health information organizations signed agreements with the eHealth Authority in recent weeks: Philadelphia-based HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Keystone Health Information Exchange of Danville.
Date: October 20, 2015