The statewide health insurance exchange in Arizona has a new name, a new strategic plan and a new governance approach.
Formerly called Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHeC), the HIE is now called Health Current. The rebranding reflects the growth, progress and potential of Arizona’s HIE, according to CEO, Melissa Kotrys. “We have seen incredible growth recently as healthcare providers are being challenged to produce better care and outcomes, with access to more complete patient information one of their most critical needs,” she said in a prepared statement. “Today Health Current is the health information exchange that helps our partners transform care by bringing together communities and information across Arizona.”
The HIE said it has grown to include information on 8 million unique patients, including information on 90 percent of all hospital inpatient and emergency discharges. Health Current said it has approximately 300 participating organizations in the HIE, with growth of more than 800 percent in the past two years.
The governance change involves new advisory councils. Since 2015 when AzHeC and Health Information of Arizona merged, HIE operations have been guided by a Network Leadership Council (NLC), which has served as a standing advisory council to the board of directors. As the organization has grown, the need for stakeholder input has grown as well. Health Current’s three-year strategic plan called for sun-setting the NLC and creating three advisory councils of the board of directors: a clinical advisory council, a data governance council, and a privacy and security council.
The strategic plan addresses several areas, including adding new data sources. Those include 18 acute care hospitals and 14 behavioral health hospitals. It mentions that the Data Governance Council will oversee data use, data quality, data standards, coding standards and data security.
Health Current will also consider the addition of value-added services, including:
• Population Health Management
• Health Care Analytics
• Community Care Plans
• Medication Fill History
• Electronic Image Sharing
• Community Referral Management
• Community Scheduling
• Advanced Directives, Power of Attorney & POLST
• Consent Management & Identity Proofing
• Personal Health Record
• Advanced Reporting
• Bundled Payment Support
• Secure Test Messaging
