HealthShare Exchange Announces Grant to Connect PA Residents with Social Services

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
HealthShare Exchange (HSX), an industry leader in clinical data sharing to support care management, quality improvement and population health for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware healthcare communities, today announced its receipt of a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Human Services for a web-based platform to connect state residents with social services that can keep them healthy, keep them engaged in their communities and help them remain at home as they age.

HSX, along with three other Pennsylvania Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), will join the collaborative effort between state agencies, counties, and local non-profits and community organizations, healthcare, and social services providers to create an integrated platform for care coordination. This platform—which will be known as PA Navigate—will help screen residents for needs that impact their ability to thrive, such as childcare, transportation, nutritional support, housing insecurity and many other social determinants of health (SDOH).

Once needs are identified, residents may be referred to Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that can provide needed services, and CBOs will be able to “close the loop” with the person making referrals so they know the resident received services. CBOs will have access to the site for free and will be able to use the platform to demonstrate their community impact to their funders. This platform will also be available to the general public.

“We are proud to be part of this opportunity that will provide a tool to navigate the resources available to residents,” said Bill Marella, Vice President of Value Based Care and Analytics at HSX. “We are committed to supporting our community, our members and especially those individuals in need of these services. This is the next generation of HIE value and the future of care coordination.”

“As residents of the poorest large city in the country, Philadelphians stand to gain a great deal from this new program,” said Denise Napier, HSX Board Chair and President/CEO of Jefferson Health Plans, a managed care organization serving Pennsylvania families with Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicare Advantage plans. “This system will also allow stakeholders throughout the state to monitor the levels of social service needs in specific neighborhoods and how well those needs are being met.”

“We know that as healthcare providers make the transition to value-based care, our ability to improve health outcomes depends as much on patients’ social well-being as on traditional healthcare concerns like cancer screenings and immunizations,” said Dr. Bill Hanson, HSX Executive Committee member and Chief Medical Information Officer at Penn Medicine. “Preventing gaps in patients’ social care needs is good preventive medicine.”

This grant was awarded to four Pennsylvania HIEs who are now working together to select a single vendor that allows interoperability and integration with stakeholders throughout the state. HSX’s grant has listed more than 50 regional healthcare providers, payers and CBOs as seeking to integrate with the statewide system. The new platform is expected to be in production by early 2024.

HSX empowers data-driven healthcare by connecting more than 500 entities in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware region to support seamless information sharing across the continuum of care. HSX is enabling the highest quality treatment for patients across the region and the country by linking the disparate electronic medical record (EMR) systems of more than 150 hospitals, 11 health plans and many other healthcare organizations including accountable care organizations (ACOs), federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), public health clinics, behavioral health rehabilitation, urgent care and post-acute providers.

About HealthShare Exchange

HealthShare Exchange (HSX) is a nonprofit community-directed organization that gathers and makes electronic patient health information available securely at the point of care throughout the Greater Philadelphia/Delaware Valley area’s healthcare ecosystem. HSX links disparate electronic medical record (EMR) systems of hospitals, health systems and healthcare stakeholders across the continuum of care along with the clinical data of healthcare insurers for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

HSX services deliver real-time clinical information to our members, including a patient’s medical history as well as notifications to enable improved outcomes, care coordination and more cost-effective care. HSX is a HITRUST-certified organization, a Pennsylvania P3N certified Health Information Organization (HIO), a State of New Jersey Trusted Data Sharing Organization (TDSO) and is part of the national eHealth Exchange. For more information, visit https://www.healthshareexchange.org/ or follow us on Twitter (@HealthShareExch) and LinkedIn.

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W2 Communications for HealthShare Exchange
Christy Pittman
christy@w2comm.com

Source: HealthShare Exchange