Pennsylvania is hoping an offer of free software and a new customer reward will get smaller healthcare providers to turn off their fax machines and to switch to secure, encrypted email to share patient information. It’s part of a national program designed to provide a halfway point for providers that can’t afford the infrastructure to connect with a healthcare information exchange.
The state’s eHealth Collaborative is providing free implementation of Direct Messaging for small healthcare providers for one year if they register by Aug. 15. Also, it is paying $250 to healthcare information service providers for each provider they register for the Direct Messaging program.
Smaller healthcare providers seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle recently as many large healthcare providers have made big investments in electronic health records. One goal of this transition is to start using health information exchanges to increase the speed and security of patient data transmission.
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In an interview with MedCity News, Robert Torres, the health information technology coordinator for Pennsylvania, said the Direct Messaging program is designed to speed up the exchange of information securely for practices still relying on the postal service to transmit data to their networks of nursing homes, physician practices and labs. He said one of the biggest challenges in working with the providers was addressing a common concern: How will Direct Messaging impact their workload?
“The interest was to get the smaller providers motivated to get in the game to keep them engaged and moving forward in terms of the health information exchange,” Torres said.
Torres estimated that at least 300 providers had signed up for the grant program as of mid-July. Officials with the state’s eHealth Collaborative have estimated there is the possibility for up to 8,000 providers to participate. Participation helps the providers meet the requirements for Meaningful Use Stage 1 and federal grants.
Eligible providers (i.e., those using fax machines and the postal service) have until Aug. 15 to sign up with a state-approved and certified health information service provider. The grant program, launched in Pennsylvania earlier this month, is designed to get small healthcare providers to use the Direct Messaging program with nursing homes, labs and physician offices to exchange patient data such as discharge summaries, patient records and lab results.
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The state’s eHealth Collaborative oversees the grant incentives program and provides direction for making the public and private, federally funded and state-funded investments in Pennsylvania’s health information technology initiatives. The grant program is a local initiative that’s part of the national Direct Project program led by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
