Health information exchanges are not a new idea although new funding from the federal government and renewed interest in the past year or two have increased the amount of HIE development across the country dramatically. From the beginning and through its development, MHC is unique in a number of ways compared with other HIEs:
- MHC was founded by competitors committed to collaboration. It remains MHC’s hallmark and required commitment of all who participate.
- MHC is 100% privately funded and operated. MHC has not received state or federal dollars to-date and will not depend on public funds as a core part of its ongoing sustainability plan.
- Given the founding Charter members had already invested in the same Medicity technology platform, our “bottom-up” approach to HIE development avoided the large upfront capital investments and/or elongated system selection activities that have significantly slowed so many other exchange efforts.
- Based on the primary service area of our participating hospitals, MHC’s service area covers over 80% of counties in Michigan’s lower peninsula and, therefore, will serve the largest number of patients by connecting the largest number of providers and other organizations in the healthcare process. This broad support and participation further solidifies MHC’s sustainability foundation into the future.
- MHC’s technology architecture and business model allows participants to leverage existing investments in their enterprise technology. This “pay-as-you-grow” model requires smaller start-up expenses and reduced overhead, thereby reducing total cost and risk over time.
- MHC members retain control over their data and can participate at their own pace.
- As an HIE platform, MHC will provide participants with a single gateway to community, statewide, and national HIEs, including the NWHIN, as well as interfaces to electronic medical record software. This will further reduce implementation and maintenance costs for our members.
- As a leading user of HIE technology from Medicity, MHC can offer participants the best pricing available on the core technology required for both Enterprise and Community health information exchange.
- The MHC platform, powered by Medicity, is built on open, vendor neutral, industry standards for data storage and exchange published by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), among others. As these standards evolve, MHC and Medicity will remain at the forefront of their adoption and use.
- MHC will provide comprehensive service and support for our solutions which simplifies the ongoing management process for our clients and reduces their required financial and human resource investments to take advantage of the platform.
- Participants who connect through MHC will satisfy the external connectivity requirements associated with the Meaningful Use incentives under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
