Massachusetts eHealth Institute At MassTech Awards $2.35M In Grants To Accelerate Connections To Statewide Health Information Exchange

The Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MeHI) recently announced 32 collaborative projects that will receive HIway Implementation Grants of up to $75,000 each. These Implementation Grants will assist 80 health care organizations across the Commonwealth in connecting to the statewide Health Information Exchange, the Mass HIway, enabling them to improve patient care and reduce costs.

“We are excited to award these grants to health care organizations across the Commonwealth,” said Pamela Goldberg, CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. “We congratulate the recipients on this achievement, and for their commitment to using the Mass HIway and health information technologies, ushering in a new era for patient care.”

Recipients were awarded grants based on their ability to build upon existing improvement efforts that impact care quality, costs or population health. Types of collaborative projects receiving funding include:

• A large facility using the HIway to manage heart failure patient care;
• Coordination between care facilities and patient care coordinators;
• An ambulance service using the HIway for pre-hospital care coordination for the homeless; and
• An acute care organization using the HIway to share discharge summaries to skilled nursing facilities and home health organizations.

In 2012, MeHI and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services launched the statewide health information exchange, the MassHIway, allowing for secure electronic health information to be transmitted between health care providers and organizations.  MeHI works to advance the use and interoperability of electronic health records by supporting adoption of the Mass HIway, the state’s health information exchange. 

Part of the Mass HIWay Last Mile Program, the Implementation Grants are designed to accelerate connections to the Mass HIway by shifting existing processes away from paper-based exchanges and those using proprietary interfaces, ultimately demonstrate measurable improvements in care quality, population health, and cost containment through use of health information technology. The Last Mile Program is funded through the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

“The long-term participation of health care organizations throughout Massachusetts is key to the success of the Mass HIway and realizing the goals of health care reform,” said Laurance Stuntz, Director of the Massachusetts eHealth Institute at MassTech. “The projects that will move forward with the aid of these grants bring us a significant step closer to achieving our shared mission.”

“I would like to add my congratulations to these 32 grantees”, said Senator James T Welch, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. “Having the technology to connect our health care providers and organizations is an important component of providing improved care at lower costs. I look forward to seeing the impact of these improvements on patient care.”

About The Massachusetts eHealth Institute
The Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative is the state's entity for health care innovation, technology, and competitiveness and is responsible for advancing the dissemination of health information technology throughout Massachusetts, including the deployment of electronic health records systems in all health care provider settings and connecting them through the statewide health information exchange. For more information, visit mehi.masstech.org

About the Mass HIway
The Massachusetts Health Information Highway (Mass HIway) is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and MeHI to deploy a secure statewide health information exchange. The Mass HIway enables the electronic movement of health related information among diverse organizations, such as doctors’ offices, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, skilled nursing facilities and health plans. The HIway facilitates the exchange of clinical information among varied health care information systems, while maintaining the meaning of the information being exchanged, regardless of provider affiliation, location or differences in technology. Using the HIway can give doctors and other clinicians a more comprehensive understanding of their patients’ full medical histories to inform a more complete delivery of their healthcare.