A New York regional health information exchange (HIE), HealthlinkNY, based in Binghamton, has publicly come out against another regional HIE’s plans to expand its services into HealthlinkNY’s market, saying it creates “confusion and uncertainty” in the marketplace.
Last week, Hixny, an HIE based in Albany that historically covered north and west of the Capital District, announced that it had added nine counties to its territory, specifically Chenango, Broome, Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Westchester and Rockland counties in southern New York. These nine counties are already covered by HealthlinkNY’s network, which covers a 13-county service area spanning the Hudson Valley, Catskills, and the Southern Tier of New York (the Southern Tier encompasses counties of New York west of the Catskill Mountains along the northern border of Pennsylvania).
With the expansion, Hixny now serves 28 counties and the HIE already has updated its website to state that it serves communities from Westchester to the Canadian border and Binghamton to Vermont. Hixny CEO Mark McKinney claims that this area, the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier region, has "historically lagged in connecting providers to one another and collecting patient consent.”
Staci Romeo, executive director of HealthlinkNY, notes that all 35 hospitals in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions are HealthlinkNY participants. In those nine counties, Hixny has 21 sites and no hospitals, according to Romeo.
Both HIEs are two among the state’s eight qualified entities (QE) connected by the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY) – a “network of networks” that allows the electronic exchange of clinical information and connects healthcare statewide – overseen by the New York State Department of Health and managed by the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC). According to the NYeC website, participating healthcare organizations can connect with the QE that best aligns with their business, operational, and service delivery needs.
HealthlinkNY issued a strongly worded press release late last week in response to Hixny’s expansion plans. “The truth is that an unnecessary expansion into this service area compromises the effectiveness of the Health Information Exchange [HIE],” Romeo said in the press release. Romeo also stated, "While others seek to confuse the marketplace for their own professional gain, our focus is pure: to help providers improve the continuum of care."
During interviews Romeo and Hixny's McKinney both addressed the expansion plans. Romeo says Hixny’s expansion into its territory creates competition between the HIEs and says the competition is a “distraction, it’s confusing for participants and it’s completely unnecessary.”
McKinney says, “The primary reason for us to consider expansion is because patients and providers really are not bound by county borders. We have long been a trail blazer as an HIE both in the state and around the country. From our perspective, reaching into those regions helps to meet the needs of those patients.” McKinney says Hixny officials recognized that there was an overlap of patients seeing providers both in Hixny’s service area and in neighboring counties.
“We looked at data for patients already inside our master patient index, and we saw significant percentages of patients already had records inside our systems, so for those providers and those patients, getting a more accurate and complete record and making that system available to providers seemed like a valuable exercise to bring all that information to one place,” he says. “This gives providers a choice in terms of what they value with regard to the services that are provided.”
According to Hixny’s website, 1 in 5 residents of the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier already have Hixny records, and that figure increases to more than 1 in 2 in counties neighboring Hixny's established service area, the website states.
HealthlinkNY's service area
Hixny's service area
McKinney also notes that it is not uncommon for multiple HIEs to serve multiple markets and he believes its beneficial to have two HIEs serving the same counties. “I think what’s most important is to meet the needs of patients and providers. Ultimately, it’s about patients and providers and making sure they have access to the information that they need,” he says.
And in response to Romeo’s statement that Hixny’s expansion creates “confusion and uncertainty in the marketplace.” McKinney says, “I can’t comment on her response; what I can say it that we’re very committed to our expansion and delivering the data and the information that will improve care and lower costs for patients and providers in the region.”
Hixny (formerly known as the Health Information Xchange of New York) launched in 1999 as a collaboration between Iroquois Health Care Alliance, which represents upstate hospitals, and the New York Health Plan Association. The HIE currently serves 1.7 million patients.
Regional HIEs enable provider organizations to access and exchange health information with participants in their region, and, in New York State, all eight QEs connect to SHIN-NY, which acts as a hub to provide access to patients’ health information statewide. When contacted for comment, Valerie Grey, executive director of the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), stated, “Ultimately, our role is to help expand participation in the information network and support all of our partners in that process. We’re going to continue that work with each of our eight regional networks because increased participation will improve health outcomes across New York.”
Historically, HIEs separately increase their networks within their agreed-upon geographic areas, while there also is a great deal of collaboration between regional HIEs. However, one challenge for many HIE leaders is determining how to exchange information with competing organizations.
Healthcare researcher Julia Adler-Milstein, Ph.D., who has done extensive research on HIEs, says there are regions with multiple HIEs operating and competition among HIEs is a common issue, although it’s often discussed in “backroom” conversations. Adler-Milstein is an associate professor of medicine and director of the Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research Center, School of Medicine, at the University of California San Francisco.
Three years ago, Adler-Milstein was part of a team of researchers from the Mathematica Policy Research, the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Michigan, School of Information that published research examining health IT adoption, including the advancement of community HIEs. As part of that study, the researchers surveyed HIE leaders about barriers to development, and 84 percent of respondents cited competition among HIEs as a barrier to their development.
In Opposing Hinxy's Expanion, HealthlinkNY Claims "Sour Grapes"
HealthlinkNY officials also take issue with the wording of Hixny’s press release stating that information sharing "historically lags" in the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier region, which is HealthlinkNY's territory.
McKinney says, "There has been public information that has demonstrated that the growth of SHIN-NY across the state has been uneven and so we’re basing [that] on some of that information that has demonstrated that certain areas have grown faster than others." He adds, “We think our press release stands for itself, in terms of demonstrating that there is a need for Hixny to deliver the data and the information that will improve care and lower costs for patients and providers in the region.”
In HealthlinkNY’s press release, Romeo said Hixny’s claims against HealthlinkNY’s impact and progress are "completely unfounded.”
HealthlinkNY, which launched in 2005, has all 35 hospitals in the Hudson Valley and Catskill region participating and sending data to their HIE, as well as 1,207 sites, according to Romeo. HealthlinkNY also recently hit the two million patient consent mark and has 374 participating provider organizations, up from 271 at the end of 2017, according to Romeo. HealthlinkNY also administers two Population Health Improvement Programs (PHIPs) in the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier. HealthlinkNY’s service area population is just shy of 2.9 million residents and includes nearly 1,800 participating locations.
Further, Romeo stated in the press release that Hixny’s claims “sound like a case of sour grapes after being passed over during our search for a strategic partner.” HealthlinkNY has entered into strategic partnership discussions with HealtheConnections, another HIE located in Syracuse that serves central New York, and Romeo stated, “HealthlinkNY had recently advised Hixny that they did not make the cut.”
When reached for comment on Romeo’s claim, McKinney responded, “Hixny’s strategy for expansion is solely based on getting providers data that is complete, accurate and up-to-date and supporting the success of the SHIN-NY by improving the overall health of our communities.”
Romeo notes that HealthlinkNY has significant plans underway in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions to increase its presence and breadth of services offered. As part of this strategy, HealthlinkNY is looking to work with a strategic partner with “innovative services and an unwavering commitment to providing value,” she says. After interviewing potential partners, HealthlinkNY decided to collaborate with HealtheConnections.
Romeo said in the press release that HealthlinkNY entered discussions with HealtheConnections because “they are in alignment with us with respect to mission, best practices, services, capabilities, and culture.” She further stated, “They also will help power a more sophisticated technology platform as well as a complementary program for population health, critical with today’s burgeoning opioid crisis and the need for increased access to mental health services. We want to take this to the next level.”
Romeo further expanded on the partnership: “The combination of services currently provided by both QE's will be expanded by this partnership. Just a few examples are: additional functionality regarding actionable analytics, HEDIS reporting, as well as alerts provided how and when participants need them. We are looking forward to synergies and shared best practices between both organizations.”
