Connecticut State Medical Society to Establish Physician-Led HIE

Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS) has announced a partnership with KaMMCO Health Solutions (KHS) in which the organizations will establish a statewide, physician-led health information exchange (HIE).

KaMMCO Health Solutions, Inc. is a provider-led subsidiary of the Kansas Medical Mutual Insurance Company, KaMMCO, a medical professional liability insurer affiliated with the Kansas Medical Society. The KHS provider-led approach aims to position organizations to help healthcare providers, integrated delivery networks, accountable care organizations (ACOs), and others seeking to improve patient outcomes while adapting to the new performance-based payment models through the use of data analytics and business intelligence tools.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut State Medical Society is a federation of eight component county medical associations, with total membership exceeding some 7,000 physicians. CSMS itself is a constituent state entity of the American Medical Association

This new HIE will aim to allow connected physicians, hospitals and other providers to share patient information, employing analytic tools designed to help improve clinical outcomes, reduce inefficiencies, and positively impact patient safety. A launch of the new CSMS-endorsed entity is anticipated late summer 2017, according to officials.

Connecticut has been a state which as struggled to develop an HIE in the past. A statewide HIE effort, the Connecticut’s Health Information Technology Exchange, was shut down in 2014 after spending $4.3 million in federal grant money over four years. But now, fueled by physicians, the state will try again, with the medical society leading the way.  

“Connecticut physicians have been waiting for some time to have a functioning interoperable system,” CSMS President Jeffrey A. Gordon, M.D., said in a statement. “We know that the electronic exchange of medical information improves health outcomes by giving physicians the right information at the right time. Care is better when we are connected.”

CSMS Executive vice president/CEO, Matthew Katz, added, “By partnering with KHS, we benefit from a proven model developed by Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN), as well as the analytics tools developed based upon input and feedback from a pilot group of physicians and hospitals. Tools such as these benefit patients at the point of care, and support physicians and other healthcare professionals transitioning to the MIPS era under the MACRA law.”