A federal program is giving Missouri’s Medicaid program $9.3 million to support implementation of a program that is intended to help multiple health care providers share patient information.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is providing the money to help Mo HealthNet develop and implement a Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program. The program provides funding to cover some of the costs for health care service providers to participate in the health information exchange.
The HIE onboarding program is for eligible health care providers that have received at least one payment in the Medicaid Interoperability Program. The providers must currently have certified electronic health record technology installed or will have it by the time interfaces are developed.
HIE will help Mo HealthNet-enrolled hospitals and health care providers securely send and receive patient medical information electronically when and where it is needed to improve patient care and outcomes, according to a Mo HealthNet news release.
The onboarding program optimizes the previous investment Mo HealthNet and the federal government have made to modernize health care in Missouri.
The onboarding program is part of Mo HealthNet’s mission to plan and implement a transformation of Missouri’s Medicaid program, Mo HealthNet Director Todd Richardson said.
It subsidizes connection fees and subscription fees for up to one year. The goal is to provide significant help to 40 Mo HealthNet-enrolled hospitals and 1,000 providers that use electronic health records to become fully connected to a health information net by September 2021, before program funding ends.
Richardson’s staff is trying to build a “best-in-class Medicaid program,” that addresses needs of the state’s most vulnerable, while remaining financially sustainable, according to the release.
“Improved health information exchange also provides state agencies and their partners with timely information to coordinate patient care and build cost-effective programs like value-based payment models,” Richardson said in the release.