Connected Communities Implementation Grant
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The Connected Communities Implementation Grant officially ended on June 30, 2018. Congratulations to all of our Connected Communities grantees and their trading partners and collaborators. We want to thank them for their participation and enthusiasm over the past two years and their hard work to improve care coordination, workflows, and health information exchange to build stronger, more connected communities of care.
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Grantees and their trading partners were able to substantially increase the number of secure electronic transactions between one another to improve care coordination for their shared patients. Specialists had access to clinical information prior to seeing a referred patient, and post-acute providers were better equipped to provide appropriate care because they had clinical data from the discharging hospital. You can read additional
project highlights and successes by navigating through the interactive map on the updated
Connected Communities Program webpage
as well as the Grantee Case Studies located on the
Connected Communities Grantee Resource webpage
.
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Join Us for Upcoming Educational Workshops
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Health Information
Exchange (HIE) Workshop
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The HIE Workshop provides an educational opportunity for healthcare providers to increase the effective use of health information exchange (HIE).
Over the course of two sessions, we will present the fundamentals of process improvement and change management strategies, and discuss how to apply these strategies to improve clinical workflows by incorporating HIE technologies including the Mass HIway.
Using insights gained through our Spring 2018 HIE Learning Collaborative, we will also share best practices to effectively implement HIE, and provide tools and resources to help organizations incorporate HIE into their workflows to manage the electronic health information they send and receive.
When and Where?
The HIE Workshop will be presented twice this fall:
September Sessions:
- Friday, Sept 14 (part one) and Friday, Sept 21 (part two)
November Sessions:
- Friday, Nov 9 (part one) and Friday, Nov 16 (part two)
The HIE Workshop will be presented by MeHI, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute, under contract with the Mass HIway. Sessions will be hosted at MeHI’s Weiss Conference Center in Westborough, MA. To register for the September HIE workshop, click
here
. To register for the November HIE workshop, click
here
.
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The MU Workshop is an educational opportunity for healthcare providers who aim to achieve Meaningful Use (MU).
Similar to the HIE workshops, over the course of two sessions, we will present the fundamentals of process improvement and change management strategies. We will then discuss how to apply these strategies to better integrate technology and improve workflows to achieve Meaningful Use objectives.
Using insights gained through our Summer 2018 MU Learning Collaborative, we will also share best practices to effectively implement HIE and patient engagement strategies, and provide tools and resources to tackle other MU objectives that providers find challenging.
When and Where?
The MU Workshop
will
be presented twice this fall:
October Sessions:
- Friday, Oct 12 (part one) and Friday, Oct 19 (part two)
December Sessions:
- Friday, Dec 7 (part one) and Friday, Dec 14 (part two)
The MU Workshop will be presented by MeHI, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute, under contract with EOHHS. Sessions will be hosted at MeHI’s Weiss Conference Center in Westborough, MA. To register for the October MU workshop, click
here
. To register for the December MU workshop, click
here
.
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Participants are strongly encouraged to attend both parts one and two of each workshop. For maximum benefit, we recommend attending both sessions back-to-back in the same month.
We also encourage multiple participants from a single organization to attend and request that at least one person from the organization attend both parts of the workshop.
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Healthy Aging Innovation Challenge Alert:
Accepting Submissions!
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Earlier this month, a group of industry, academic, and government partners announced
In Good Company: The Optimal Aging Challenge
,
a $20,000 competition to improve healthy aging in Massachusetts by leveraging the development of breakthrough technologies, community resources, and other solutions to reduce social isolation and loneliness and increase engagement among older populations.
Organized in collaboration with GE Healthcare, MIT’s Age Lab, Benchmark Senior Living, and Governor Charlie Baker’s
Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts
, t
he challenge seeks ideas or technologies that fall within at least one of four pillars: caregiving, transportation, housing, and employment.
The deadline to submit an entry is
September 28
. For more information, click
here
.
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Calling All Innovators!
Aging and Caregiving Digital Health Reverse Pitch
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Presented by Aging 2.0 Boston
in Collaboration with the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI)
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Following on last year’s successful event, the Aging and Caregiving Digital Health Reverse Pitch event will connect entrepreneurs and aging services providers to address pressing problems in caregiving. At this event, key players in the aging services sector will discuss their view of the problems, how they’ve approached them, and opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators to design technologies to help family caregivers, professional caregivers, agencies, and others in senior care. After the panel presentation, entrepreneurs and others in the audience can ask questions, offer recommendations, and connect directly with these key players and others.
Date:
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Time:
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Boston, MA
Keynote:
- Alice Bonner, Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs
Panelists:
- Andy Miller, SVP Innovation and Product Development, AARP
- Chetan Parekh, Associate Brand Director & Innovation Portfolio Leader, Procter & Gamble
- Leigh Anne Capello, SVP Brand Strategy and Marketing, Benchmark Senior Living
Moderator:
- Sally Abrahms (Moderator), Award-Winning Writer Focusing on Age 50+ Topics
Hosts:
- Tim Driver, CEO, Mature Caregivers
- Laurance Stuntz, Director, MeHI
This event is free, but registration is required.
Register
here
.
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Webinar: Meaningful Use Boot Camp
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The Meaningful Use (MU) Boot Camp serves as an introduction to the
Medicaid EHR Incentive Program
. The webinar provides an orientation for new Designees to learn about the critical tasks of navigating the program and the application process.
This soup-to-nuts webinar is an accelerated training course designed to educate new designees on everything
Meaningful Use
, so that they can successfully attest on behalf of providers and earn the maximum remaining incentive money for the organization.
Boot Camp attendees get a step-by-step overview of the entire attestation process, including:
- Program basics and provider registration systems;
- Designee authorization and MAPIR access;
- Eligibility criteria, Patient Volume Threshold (PVT), Hospital-Based Letter;
- MU objectives and measures, MU dashboard, reporting periods;
- Supporting documentation requirements: examples, obstacles, MeHI resources; and
- Attestation prep and future attestations.
Complete MeHI’s Designee Boot Camp and become the Meaningful Use champion for your organization! Attendees can expect to take away a comprehensive understanding of the attestation process and how to avoid common pitfalls, as well as more confidence in securing incentive payments.
The Designee Boot Camp webinar will be offered on
Tuesday, September 18
and on
Wednesday, September 19
. Both sessions will run from
Noon-1:00 p.m.
and the same information will be presented at both.
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The Mass HIway, the Massachusetts Health Information Exchange, is the state-sponsored Health Information Exchange (HIE) that can be used by eligible providers to securely transmit patient health data electronically in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. Mass HIway enables the connected organizations to coordinate patient care, or to report patient health information to public health registries to achieve Meaningful Use.
The latest 2.0 release of Mass HIway is DirectTrust Certified, meaning that you can transmit not only to other HIway users, but also to organizations connected to many other HIE networks and Health Information Service Providers (HISPs) across the U.S.
Massachusetts now also mandates the use of HIE through the
Mass HIway Regulations
(
101 CMR 20.00). Acute Care Hospitals, Large and Medium Medical Ambulatory Practices, and Community Health Centers all need to get connected, and attest to their connection by July 1, 2019. In the next few years, this requirement will likely expand to include other organizations as well. Click
here
for a Regulations Summary, and click
here
for Regulations FAQs.
The Mass HIway Account Management team assists providers to get enrolled and connected to HIway 2.0 and can advise in regulations and attestation compliance. The team can also assist in developing HIE Use Cases to get optimal use from your cost-effective subscription to HIway 2.0.
Join the Mass HIway 101 Webinar to learn more
Register
here
for the Mass HIway 101 Webinar on
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
from
Noon-1pm
. As space is limited, register soon. We will provide an introduction to Mass HIway 2.0, including:
- HIway 2.0 Benefits and Services
- HIE Use Case Development
- How to enroll and connect to Mass HIway 2.0
- The Mass HIway Regulations and Connection requirement
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The Mass HIway Operations Team plans to migrate all HIway Participants from the legacy HIway to the new and improved HIway 2.0 environment over the next year.
HIway 2.0 will align the Mass HIway with modern interoperability standards, simplify the connection process, and improve the user experience using the Orion Health Communicate solution.
The Mass HIway website has been updated to include important instructions to initiate the migration process, information about HIway 2.0 enhancements and features, and additional resources.
Click
here
to review the Mass HIway 2.0 Migration Information website.
For general questions about the Mass HIway migration process, please email the Mass HIway at
masshiway@state.ma.us
.
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As described in Section 5.2 of the
Mass HIway Policies and Procedures
, all Acute Care Hospitals, Large Community Health Centers, and Large and Medium Medical Ambulatory Practices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were required to submit an Attestation Form
by July 1, 2018,
explaining how they had met the requirement to connect to the Mass HIway in accordance with 101 CMR 20.00, also known as the
Mass HIway Regulations
.
Important Information:
- Even though the July 1, 2018 deadline has passed, the HIway urges all Provider Organizations with a connection requirement to make a submission. Online Attestation Forms, which include guidance for completion and submission, can be accessed here, in the section regarding “Mass HIway Attestation Form.”
- The online Attestation Form must be completed in one session. Data cannot be entered and saved for completion at a later time. If you are not ready to complete the full online Attestation Form at this time, we suggest that you use the PDF version of the Attestation Form to plan and prepare responses, then complete the online version when all of your responses are ready. PDF versions of the Attestation Forms are available by clicking the appropriate link: Year 1 Attestation Form, Year 2 Attestation Form.
- If an organization has not fulfilled its HIway connection requirement and cannot complete the Attestation Form, an authorized representative of the organization must still submit information to the Mass HIway. See section 3.8 of the Mass HIway Regulations FAQs for detailed instructions.
Helpful Resources:
For additional information about the Mass HIway Regulations and the Attestation Forms, please review the Mass HIway Regulations FAQ document, available in
PDF format
and also on the
Mass HIway website
. The FAQs were updated in April 2018 to include additional questions received since they were first published in February 2017. If you have any additional questions, please email
MassHIwayAttestation@state.ma.us
.
Click
here
to review the Mass HIway on-demand "HIway Connection Requirement" webinars from May 22nd and June 26th.
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