March 2021 | Issue 44
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Now Available
COVID-19 vaccination data is now available within HEALTHeLINK. HEALTHeLINK is receiving a daily file of COVID-19 vaccinations sourced by the New York State Immunization Information Service (NYSIIS). The data provided will include where the vaccine was administered, when it was administered and what vaccination it is in a series, including whether the series has been completed. For more information, please contact your HEALTHeLINK account manager.
ONC award recipient to expand COVID-19 Immunization Information Sharing
HEALTHeLINK has received federal funding from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) focused on increasing data sharing between jurisdictional Immunization Information Systems (IISs) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs).
 
As part of the project, HEALTHeLINK will be developing technologies to evaluate the COVID-19 immunization status for Western New York patients, risk stratify those most at-risk who have yet to receive the vaccine, provide ongoing monitoring of patients who have received the COVID-19 vaccination, including identifying patients with an emergency department or hospital admission within seven days of immunization; identification of patients with a positive COVID-19 test within 60 days of immunization; and other monitoring criteria to be determined. With the results of these evaluations, HEALTHeLINK will deliver alert notifications to participating providers regarding their patients’ immunization status, hospital admissions and COVID-19 test status. 
2020 Report to the Community
HEALTHeLINK continues to play a vital role in the delivery and quality of patient care. As highlighted in our 2020 Report to the Community, the value of health information exchange has never been more evident. A few of the major highlights:

  • Working in close partnership with county and state health departments to support epidemiology, surveillance and other COVID-19 community response efforts that continue to be actively utilized today.
  • More than 10 million alert notifications were delivered to participating providers.
  • Patient record lookup totaled nearly six million.
  • The HEALTHeLINK team worked on a total of 86 different products focused on improving the HIE foundation and enhancing services offered to participants.

To view the HEALTHeLINK 2020 Report to the Community, click here.
HEALTHeCOMMUNITY Portal 3.0
This month, the HEALTHeCOMMUNITY Portal will be upgraded to a new version that includes significant changes. While the upgrade is intended to provide a more user-friendly and efficient workflow for logging into applications such as HEALTHeLINK, HEALTHeNET, and Secure Messaging (Mirth Mail), there are also some policy and security driven changes that are taking place. For more details, please click here.
Top 10 Ways to Maximize HEALTHeLINK
As utilization of HEALTHeLINK continues to increase, our account managers have created their top 10 ways to maximize your HEALTHeLINK services.

  1. Keep HEALTHeLINK up to date on practice changes. This includes requesting access for new staff, setting up new providers to ensure delivery of results and then monitoring the results delivery to ensure getting reports from the data sources you're expecting to, updating changes such as name, address, phone numbers and key contacts, and de-activating staff who have left. In addition, please inform your HEALTHeLINK account manager if a provider has left your office at [email protected].
  2. Determine patient consent status before administering consent collection process.
  3. Attend HEALTHeLINK webinars for more in-depth education on services.
  4. Update your patient list regularly to maximize alerts effectiveness.
  5. Answer audit requests promptly.
  6. Log all questions or issues through our Help Desk at 1-877-895-4724, or [email protected].
  7. Provide specific examples when logging an issue with the HEALTHeLINK support team.
  8. Visit HEALTHeLINK website for a library of training materials, listing of data sources and more.
  9. Urge providers in your referral patterns to participate and contribute data.
  10. Discontinue faxes from data sources you are interfaced for results delivery.
Hospital Event Notification Alerts
The CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule published in 2020 and effective May 2021, requires hospitals to send electronic admit, discharge, and transfer notifications to providers that have an established relationship with the patient. HEALTHeLINK is currently working with participating hospitals to establish a plan to meet this new regulatory requirement leveraging our existing alert notification process. Once implemented, providers can expect to receive more alerts on their patients, including alerts for patients they may not be subscribed to. For additional information, please contact your account manager.
Enhanced Data Quality Reports
HEALTHeLINK first developed data quality reports in 2018, focusing initially on the data coming into the exchange on CCDs. The rule set to evaluate data completeness and accuracy was recently enhanced to focus on the key data elements needed to procure NCQA certification and become a provider of HEDIS standard supplemental data, as well as to continue the support of value-based care programs such as Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) and Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH).

HEALTHeLINK will be emailing the new data quality reports to primary and specialty care practices, long-term care facilities and hospitals that send a minimum of 100 CCDs per month along with information highlighting the top opportunities to improve the quality of the information your organization sends to us.
HEALTHeLINK IN THE NEWS
ADOPTION


Percent of WNY practices who participate with HEALTHeLINK: 87%
 
Total number of patient consent forms signed: 1,395,427
 
Total results available through HEALTHeLINK: 291,003,212
 
Total number of patient record look up queries in HEALTHeLINK from January-March 2021: 799,641 
 
Total number of practices sending data to HEALTHeLINK from their EHR: 448
 
Total number of practices getting results delivered from HEALTHeLINK into their EHR:446
NEW DATA SOURCES


Joseph V Mure MD PLLC
 
For a complete listing of data sources and participating practices, click here!
PATIENT RECORD
LOOK-UP TOP USERS

Hospital Users
--Kaleida Health System
--Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center
--Roswell Park 
--ECMC
--Catholic Health System

Physician Practice Users
--General Physician PC
--Dent Neurologic Institute
--Buffalo Medical Group
--WNY Urology Associates
--University Neurology
--Landmark Medical
--Roswell Park Oncology PC
--Windsong Radiology
--UB Neurosurgery
--The Chautauqua Center

Other Participant Users
--Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network
--Health Homes of Upstate New York
--ConnectLife
--Health Home Partners of Western New York
--Erie County DOH
Proud member of SHIEC

Proud to be part of the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY)