Newsletter: June 2024 Issue

July 3, 2024July 9, 2024 by UHIN

JUNE 2024

What’s Hot in HIT

As the mercury soars this summer, we’re turning our attention to the burning issues in Health Information Technology (HIT). We’re delving into the latest developments in Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the blazing necessity of cybersecurity, updates on the Change Healthcare breach, and upcoming events and webinars.

Follow us on LinkedIn for weekly posts and updates!

Spotlight

Unlocking the Potential of FHIR

HL7® FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) represents a paradigm shift in healthcare data exchange. In our most recent blog post, Ryan McLelland (Chief Technology Officer at UHIN) provides a thought-provoking look at the benefits of FHIR, the myths around it, and a strategic approach to implementing this powerful catalyst for innovation in healthcare.

Discover FHIR

HIT News

Staying Safe

Maintaining a strong security posture is critical for protecting personal health information (PHI) and other data. Good practices include establishing interoperability, resiliency and redundancy across your network. As ransomware attacks continue to climb in the US, you need to cover your network to make sure you don’t get burned.

We continue to monitor and share updates about the Change Healthcare (CHC) breach on our News & Updates page. You can also sign up to receive Status updates via email, Slack, text, and other preferred methods whenever UHIN creates, updates or resolves an incident, including information about the CHC breach.

Subscribe to Updates

HIT News

Update on CHC Breach

We recently shared an update on our ongoing efforts to minimize disruption caused by the cybersecurity event at Change Healthcare (CHC), with a specific focus on Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) delivery (835 files).

Read the Update

Events

Coming Up in July and Beyond

July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. We’ll share info, inspiration, and resources for mental health on our social media.

We will be closed for Independence Day on Thursday, July 4, 2024.

Upcoming Conferences:September 13: Utah Medical Association (UMA) annual House of Delegates in Midvale, UT

October 15-17: Civitas Annual Conference in Detroit, MI

Trainings and Webinars

Upcoming Online Trainings and Webinars

In July, we’re starting our virtual Payer Panel series where you can ask questions and get answers from health plan representatives.

Later this year, we’ll host training sessions on the new CHIE platform, specifically for portal users.

Wrapping Up

Get Your Claims Flowing

We continue to support Providers affected by the CHC breach by working with payers to expedite Provider enrollment. Once enrolled, Providers can use our solutions to create and send professional and institutional claims via SFTP, file tool or online hand-entry, check claims status, manage denials and rejections, and search, view, and download payment information. Click below to learn more and get your claims flowing again!

Get Started

Join our monthly newsletter and don’t miss a thing!

Update on UHIN’s Response to the Change Healthcare Cybersecurity Event: Progress on ERA Delivery and Continued Collaboration

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 by UHIN

Dear Valued Customers,

This message serves as an update on our ongoing efforts to minimize disruption caused by the cybersecurity event at Change Healthcare (CHC), with a specific focus on Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) delivery (835 files). We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we work to resolve these challenges. Please click here for more information on expediting enrollment with UHIN and FAQs regarding the CHC cybersecurity event.

Collaborative Efforts to Restore ERA Delivery:

UHIN is actively working to restore consistent ERA delivery for our broader provider community. Our internal teams, including enrollment specialists, application support staff, business analysts, and software engineers, are collaborating closely with their counterparts at our clearinghouse partners. This combined effort is focused on facilitating the smooth and efficient transmission of 835 files.

Acknowledging Provider Challenges:

We understand the difficulties this outage has caused for providers who rely on timely ERAs for accurate payment reconciliation. We are committed to making significant progress in opening these critical channels for a wider range of providers.

Positive Developments and Upcoming Information:

We have made significant strides in restoring ERA delivery functionality. We will provide more detailed information and a clearer timeline for full restoration once we complete the next round of testing currently underway.

Continued Commitment and Support:

UHIN remains dedicated to resolving outstanding issues and ensuring a smooth claims processing experience for all our customers. We will continue to provide regular updates and are here to assist you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our customer support team if you have any questions or require further assistance.

Thank you for your continued partnership.

Sincerely,

The UHIN Team

Newsletter: May 2024 Issue

June 6, 2024July 9, 2024 by UHIN

MAY 2024

We’re Here, Already

For many of us, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer. Hard to believe we’re heading into June! In this month’s newsletter, we look at the importance of resilient, redundant and interoperable systems, the events and webinars coming up, and we attempt to foretell everything that will happen for the rest of the year.

Remember to join us on LinkedIn for frequent news and updates!

Spotlight

What’s in store for the rest of ’24?

The first half of this year was packed with exciting news and rocked by tech incidents. While we can’t predict the future, we can plan a better path ahead.

Look into your crystal ball 🔮 What are your predictions (big or small) for things to come in healthcare this year? And, what are your goals that you hope to accomplish? We want to hear from you!

Share Your Predictions

HIT News

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: Will the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Wake Up Healthcare?

John Lynn and Colin Hung look at where the industry stands just two months following the ransomware attack. For healthcare professionals, this could be a watershed moment for information security, revenue cycle management (RCM) and back-up planning for potential, future incidents.

Listen or Watch

From the UHIN Blog

Resiliency, Redundancy, and Interoperability

Our most recent blog post (authored by Brian Chin, UHIN’s CEO) addresses the importance of redundant and resilient healthcare systems, and how they support seamless interoperability in times of crisis. There are, of course, great benefits and challenges when it comes to maintaining interoperability during disaster recovery (see them below👇).

Read On

Events

Where we’ll be in the second half of 2024

September 13: Utah Medical Association (UMA) annual House of Delegates in Midvale, UT

October 15-17: Civitas Annual Conference in Detroit, MI

More to come: Stay tuned!

Trainings and Webinars

Upcoming Online Trainings & Webinars

We’ll host training sessions on the new CHIE platform, specifically for portal users. Stay tuned for more details on our virtual Payer Panels where you can ask questions and get answers from health plan representatives.

Wrapping Up

Mental Health Month

May is Mental Health Month. Our partners and customers offer services and solutions that can help, including AARP Utah’s mental health and wellness resources and Valley Behavioral Health’s treatment programs and services for children and youth. We invite you to learn how you can get involved all year by visiting Mental Health America.

Join our monthly newsletter and don’t miss a thing!

Newsletter: April 2024 Issue

April 30, 2024July 9, 2024 by UHIN

APRIL 2024

April’s Big News: Comagine Health Affiliation

This month we announced our affiliation with Comagine Health and added new CHIE data sources from CommonSpirit Health. We look forward to growing with our new strategic partners, customers, and you! Keep reading for what else happened in April and what’s coming up next month.

P.S. Follow our LinkedIn page for more frequent news, posts and insights

Spotlight

UHIN and Comagine Health Announce Our Affiliation

“Aligning our health care knowledge and expertise through affiliation is a profound opportunity to advance our parallel missions, while delivering greater success to our customers and partners. We have collaborated successfully for more than a decade. As affiliates, UHIN and Comagine Health can serve as a unified force for change in health care for the foreseeable future.”

- Brian Chin, UHIN’s Chief Executive Officer

Keep scrolling for more information on our affiliation.

HIT News

The Full Release on our Affiliation

We have announced our official affiliation with Comagine Health, a national nonprofit healthcare consulting firm. We have a long history of working together over the last decade on federal and state initiatives to advance electronic health record (EHR) adoption, cost transparency reporting, capacity and functionality of all-payer claims databases (APCDs) and interoperability and surveillance activities. Combining our technology solutions and Comagine Health’s analytic services will enable more actionable health insights and more sustainable, transformational improvements for communities.

Learn More

From the UHIN Blog

The CHIE adds CommonSpirit Health as a Data Source

The CHIE continues to add important data sources, providing healthcare professionals with vital medical information when it is needed most. Recently, we’ve onboarded CommonSpirit Health as a data source.

Read On

Events

2024 WEDI Spring Conference Next Month

We’re attending the WEDI Spring Conference from May 13 – 16 (virtually). We look forward to learning more from experts, like Aneesh Chopra, about solutions to improve information exchange, enhance care quality, and reduce cost and burden.

Are you planning to attend online, too?

WEDI Conference

Trainings and Webinars

Virtual Payer Panels in the Works

In addition to online product trainings for our customers, we’re preparing virtual payer panels for later this year. These will be similar to the payer panels you may have attended in previous years at the HIT Conference.

Wrapping Up

Report: Significant Differences in Administrative Costs

We’re reading the recent CAQH report on the wide differences in administrative transaction costs for generalists, specialists and behavioral health providers. “The medical industry spends an astonishing $83 billion annually on staff time to conduct routine administrative transactions between providers and health plans during and after a patient-provider encounter. Providers shoulder 97 percent of these costs.”

Read the Report

Join our monthly newsletter and don’t miss a thing!

Newsletter: March 2024 Issue

April 4, 2024July 9, 2024 by UHIN

MARCH 2024

“Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Such was life in the healthcare information technology sector this month. We collectively faced daunting cyber circumstances and peered into an optimistic future filled with the possibilities of A.I., resilient and redundant networks, and healthcare interoperability for all.

Spotlight

Cyberattacks affect all of us. We're here to help.

Our Response to the Change Cyber Incident

UHIN is dedicated to maintaining interoperability for all payers, providers and partners. When an event as large as the Change Healthcare cyber incident impacts our community, we know we need to serve as a bridge to stable ground. Read more about the actions we’re taking to support our community at this time.

Our Response

HIT News

Get Your Claims Flowing

We’re actively supporting Providers by expediting enrollment with Payers to get claims flowing again. Providers can leverage our solutions to create and send professional and institutional claims, submit via SFTP, file tool or online hand-entry, check claims status, manage denials and rejections, and search, view, and download payment information.

We can connect with health plans, so they may receive claims from providers through a direct connection to our clearinghouse. Empower your provider network by elevating your collaboration efforts, securely sharing information and data, and providing better affordable care for your members.

Get Your Claims Flowing

From the UHIN Blog

The Future of Health Care Cybersecurity

The alarming rise in cyber threats – namely ransomware – highlight the urgent need for enhanced cyber resiliency and robust security measures in healthcare. Read our recent blog post with five ways to reduce your risk and secure personal health information (PHI) from cyberattacks.

Start Reducing Risk

Events

HIMSS 2024 Recap

HIMSS shared their recap of the 2024 Global Health Conference & Exhibition (March 11-15 in Orlando). Cybersecurity, A.I.,and health equity and access to care delivery were big themes this year. What were you most excited to learn at HIMSS this year?

See the Recap

Trainings and Webinars

CHIE platform trainings

We’re preparing a series of online trainings for CHIE users this year. Explore our new platform and share feedback with our HIT experts. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming trainings.

Wrapping Up

Thriving in Complexity from the Comagine Health Blog

Comagine Health President and CEO Marc Bennett addresses how the organization has been managing competing tensions while building partnerships to serve as a prime contractor for the 13th Statement of Work in the Midwest CMS QIN-QIO Region 6.

Visit the Blog

Join our monthly newsletter and don’t miss a thing!

Newsletter: February 2024 Issue

February 29, 2024July 9, 2024 by UHIN

February 2024

Thanks for spending this extra day going around the sun with us. In February, we dove into the 2023 CAQH Index Report and prepared for the CHIE’s migration to a new platform.

One more thing: For our providers experiencing disruptions in their claims management due to the Change cyberattack, we’re here to help. Please contact us to fast track your enrollment with payers at customersuccess@uhin.org.

Spotlight

Black History Month and American Heart Month

In February we recognized Black History Month and American Heart Month. Here are just a couple ways to support and celebrate these causes throughout the entire year:

For health care professionals and clinicians, use the resources in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) heart toolkit to support their patients, especially women, by listening to their heart.

In Utah? Dive into Utah’s rich black history at the Utah Black History Museum! Find the mobile exhibit across Utah this year or consider donating.

HIT News

The CHIE is Moving to a New Platform!

The new platform empowers CHIE users to better understand patient populations, provide greater care, reduce waste while improving quality, and pinpoint at-risk patients to intervene before their next encounter.

After consulting with our community’s advisory committee, we will be migrating five years of data with the exception of opt out consents, immunizations, allergies, and colonoscopies for which a longer history will be migrated.

Technical implementation is currently underway and we anticipate user migrations will start in Q2 of 2024. We will keep all CHIE users informed of our progress via email.

I’m Interested

From the UHIN Blog

Our Take on the CAQH Index Report

We published two blog posts sharing our thoughts on the most recent CAQH Index released earlier this month. How did electronic transaction adoption and healthcare administration change in 2023 for both providers and payers? Keep reading to find out.

For Providers

For Payers

Events

ViVE and HIMSS

Our CEO, Brian Chin, recently attended ViVe 2024. Artificial Intelligence was a hot topic this year, as you may have expected. Check out a few photos from the conference here.

Are you going to HIMSS 2024? Let us know what you’re most excited to see while in Orlando next month at communications@uhin.org.

Trainings and Webinars

CHIE platform trainings

We have online trainings coming up for the new CHIE platform. Please sign up for CHIE updates and our Events notifications to add these to your calendar so you don’t miss a thing!

Wrapping Up

Share your story, plus looking ahead to March

Do you have something your peers in healthcare and tech just have to know about? An innovative interoperability solution or point of view? Please email us at communications@uhin.org and we’ll include links to our favorite community content each month.

Next month we’ll attend HIMSS 2024 and help to raise awareness of the risks and symptoms of diabetes on American Diabetes Alert Day (March 26).

Join our monthly newsletter and don’t miss anything!

A New Era for Data Interoperability

February 22, 2024February 22, 2024 by UHIN

The CHIE is moving to a new FHIR®-enabled platform in 2024.

The new platform empowers CHIE users to better understand patient populations, provide greater care, reduce waste while improving quality, and pinpoint at-risk patients to intervene before their next encounter. The enhanced user experience will put data at your fingertips and our FHIR®-native exchange streamlines data sharing while preparing you for future requirements.

After consulting with our community’s advisory committee, we will be migrating five years of data with the exception of opt out consents, immunizations, allergies, and colonoscopies for which a longer history will be migrated. Technical implementation is currently underway and we anticipate user migrations will start in Q2 of 2024. We will keep all CHIE users informed of our progress via email.

CHIE Portal users will see the greatest updates in a modern user interface that offers access to Health Information Exchange (HIE) data through FHIR® standards. Portal users will be able to search and view patient data, and results notifications, as well as waste and quality measures. Users will be able to configure their dashboard to optimize workflows.

Keep reading about the migration, including all the enhancements you can expect here.

About the CHIE Platform

Important Updates to the UHIN Requirements

December 18, 2023January 30, 2024 by UHIN

This notice is to inform you of important updates to the UHIN Requirements. The UHIN Requirements are the standards, specifications, policies, procedures, and guidelines that apply to the UHIN Network. All UHIN members contractually agree to comply with the UHIN Requirements (and changes thereto) as part of their participation in the UHIN Network and their use of UHIN’s clearinghouse, clinical health information exchange (CHIE), and related services.

The UHIN Board of Directors—which is comprised of community stakeholders from the Utah healthcare community—recently approved the addition of a Member Policies and Procedures Manual (Version 1) (the “Member Manual”) to the UHIN Requirements. The Member Manual supports our community’s compliance with the 21st Century Cures Act interoperability mandates as well as health information privacy, security and breach notification laws. The updated UHIN Requirements may be found at https://support.uhin.org/s/article/Member-Policies-And-Procedures-Manual.

The Member Manual includes the following policies applicable to all members:

Data Submission Policy
Security Specifications and Network Maintenance Policy
Security Event Reporting Policy
Minimum Necessary Procedure
Individual Rights Policy

The Member Manual also contain the following CHIE specific policies to support compliance with the federal prohibition on information blocking:

The CHIE No Information Blocking Policy
The CHIE Notice and Opt Out Policy
The CHIE Permitted Purpose Policy, including expanded permitted purposes that fully support HIPAA-permitted treatment, payment and health care operation activities of health care providers and health plans, as well as UHIN’s uses of CHIE data to support limited public health activities, research and data analytic services (collectively, the “Expanded Permitted Purposes”).

The Member Manual is effective as of January 1, 2024.

For organizations or agencies that have, may, or are a CHIE data supplier: pursuant to our current contract, CHIE members who make clinical data available through the CHIE must consent to the Expanded Permitted Purposes. Please sign and return the attached form indicating your affirmative consent to the Expanded Permitted Purposes no later than January 1, 2024. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION’S OR AGENCY’S CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE UHIN NETWORK AFTER JANUARY 1, 2024 CONSTITUTES YOUR ORGANIZATION’S OR AGENCY’S IMPLIED CONSENT TO THE EXPANDED PURPOSES. IF YOUR ORGANIZATION OR AGENCY DOES NOT CONSENT TO THE EXPANDED PERMITTED PURPOSES, YOU MUST SEND UHIN YOUR WRITTEN NOTICE OF INTENT TO TERMINATE PARTICIPATION IN THE UHIN NETWORK NO LATER THAN JANUARY 1, 2024.

If you have any questions please contact us at customersupport@uhin.org.

Health and Tech Professionals Gather Once Again at the 2023 HIT Conference

September 1, 2023December 18, 2023 by UHIN

Our annual Health Information Technology Conference (HIT) will return to Salt Lake on Wednesday, October 18 at the Conference Center at Gail Miller Campus, SLCC. This year, we’ll look towards the “future of healthcare interoperability” with speakers, leaders and professionals from across the healthcare and technology continuum. While we will also celebrate the fact that 2023 marks our 30th year as an innovative organization, we will keep our focus on what’s coming up in the world of healthcare and technology. Some of our most exciting topics include:

Artificial Intelligence in healthcare
Billing for today and beyond
Cybersecurity
Digital transformation in healthcare
Documentation burden
HL7 and FHIR
Health equity
Health Data Utilities (HDUs)
Medicare updates
Mental health and burn out
Population Health

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Angela Dunn, Executive Director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, will deliver our welcome keynote address in the morning.

Joy Rios, founder and host of the HIT Like a Girl podcast, will present the afternoon keynote address.

We look forward to seeing you on October 18th!

How Does Your EDI Partner Stack Up? (Part 4 of 4)

August 16, 2023August 16, 2023 by UHIN

4 Questions to Ask

Question 4: How Does Your EDI Partner Reduce the Burden of Claims Submission for Providers?

Plan members want access to a range of high- quality providers. Without a robust provider network, health plans are challenged to grow membership and differentiate themselves from competitors.

The Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) 2022 Index reported that providers spend ten minutes submitting a single electronic claim on average. For paper, it’s 22 minutes. A large part of this is repetitive data entry. These time blocks add up to significant resource drains in a typical day. Alleviating stressors will reduce payer-provider friction and promote cooperation in your common goal to improve health outcomes for members.

With the right EDI partner, you can streamline operations, reduce administrative burden, and improve your organization’s bottom line. Embracing new technologies and cooperative partnerships can help you gain a competitive advantage and, ultimately, provide better care to members.

Our fourth and final question leads you to ask yourself: “Is my EDI partner providing holistic support to my partner’s and my own organization’s operations?”

Ready to jump to all four questions? Want to see how your EDI partner stacks up? Download our white paper here.

READ NOW

How Does Your EDI Partner Reduce the Burden of Claims Submission for Providers?

Plan members want access to a range of high- quality providers. Without a robust provider network, health plans are challenged to grow membership and differentiate themselves from competitors.

The healthcare industry is becoming more consumer-driven and labor shortages continue to mount. Health plans need to be mindful of provider relationships and the administrative burdens your claims processing may be placing on them.

Your healthcare EDI partner should help you to help providers with an affordable billing tool. Our solution, MYUHIN, reduces repetitive data-entry, and solidifies coding and submissions data to satisfy your processing requirements. Providers can use MYUHIN to submit claims, check patient eligibility, and search, view, and download payment information from any computer, any where.

UHIN is a national EDI network built in 1993 by health plans. We partner with payers and providers across the US. Our approach to EDI and customer service is different. If you’re interest in learning more, please contact us today.