eHealth Exchange Survey Reveals Dramatic Increases in Participation and Online Transactions

MCCLEAN, VA--(Marketwired - Jan 30, 2014) - Healtheway, the non-profit, public-private collaboration that operationally supports the eHealth Exchange (formerly known as the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange), today announced the results of its annual participation survey. The survey results show significant increases in participation in the eHealth Exchange as well as a surge in the number of secure online transactions taking place among the eHealth Exchange community participants.

Current membership in the eHealth Exchange includes 41 participants that together represent 800 hospitals, 6,000 mid-to-large medical groups, 800 dialysis centers and 850 retail pharmacies dispersed throughout the nation. These participants reflect a broad range of health organization types and sizes.

"When we began this work back in 2007, we believed these types of results would one day be possible. Now that the day is here, we're even more excited about future growth potential for the eHealth Exchange," said Michael Matthews, Healtheway President and Chair. "It's particularly gratifying to witness the increase in transactions throughout the community. Each transaction represents another process simplified, a patient better served or a doctor better informed. And this is just the beginning."

In 2013, several hundred thousand transactions were securely exchanged among eHealth Exchange participants related to treatment, transitions of care and eligibility for federal benefits, including Social Security. In addition, eHealth Exchange participants pushed more than 26 million transactions to CMS related to quality data for the End Stage Renal Disease program.

In addition to the current increase in participation, the survey revealed a strong pipeline of new organizations that have applied to join the eHealth Exchange. More than 60 organizations have applied and are in various stages of testing in preparation for going live on the eHealth Exchange. In the next several months, participation in the eHealth Exchange is expected to more than double, bringing the full number of participants to over 100. Dozens of other organizations have indicated that they will begin the application process in the coming months.

"The numbers tell a very compelling story," said Mariann Yeager, Healtheway's Executive Director. "In just a few months, the eHealth Exchange is expected to connect more than 1,600 hospitals, which is more than 30% of the hospitals in the United States, plus 10,000 medical groups. In total, eHealth Exchange participants are expected serve nearly 100 million patients -- almost a third of the country's population. We started off with an ambitious goal of making the eHealth Exchange a prominent and viable method for secure online e-health transactions in the nation, and these survey results indicate that we've made great strides in that direction."

The eHealth Exchange maintains its growth trajectory because it solves many of the challenges health organizations face in setting up secure, online data exchange with other groups. Among other benefits, the eHealth Exchange:

• Provides a standardized and cost-effective way to securely share clinical information without having to establish point-to-point legal agreements and negotiate/test with every exchange partner.
• Helps satisfy Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements, including the transitions of care measure #2.
• Complements state and regional health information organization (HIO) efforts to connect their communities.
• Expedites processing of disability claims and payment of benefits to the disabled.

According to Sean Turner, Senior Director of Health Information Exchange and Community Care for Dignity Health, "Dignity Health became an early member of the eHealth Exchange because we could see its vision and the value that it could bring to our patients. The eHealth Exchange will allow Dignity Health's acute and ambulatory care practices to share information securely through the eHealth Exchange with outside care partners, including many of the critical partners in the market we serve; partners such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, the Health Information Network of Arizona, HealtHIE Nevada, Inland Empire HIE, and others."

Any organization interested in participating in the eHealth Exchange will find information about the participation process at http://healthewayinc.org. Among the many benefits and improvements for potential participants is a highly efficient and automated testing process. Healtheway partnered with AEGIS to create a highly-automated testing process. The new testing process verifies that the systems used to exchange information comply with technical requirements and interoperate. Automation is reducing technical testing processes from months to days/weeks, and at a fraction of the effort from the prior onboarding program.

A full list of eHealth Exchange participants can be found at: http://healthewayinc.org/index.php/exchange/participants. 

About Healtheway
Healtheway is a non-profit organization chartered to advance secure, interoperable nationwide HIE, as well as operationally support the eHealth Exchange, a rapidly growing community of exchange partners, who share information under a common trust framework and a common set of rules. Currently, 41 participants include four federal agencies, six states, and several dozen Health Information Organizations (HIOs) and health systems, which represent hundreds of hospitals, thousands of providers and millions of patients. Healtheway leads in cross-industry collaboration to develop implementation strategies that enable secure, interoperable nationwide exchange of health information. For more information about Healtheway and the eHealth Exchange: www.healthewayinc.org.