Health Homes and Health Information Technology (HIT) Standards
New York State Office of Health Insurance Program (OHIP) developed nine (9) HIT standards to help promote better Health Home care coordination. Each Health Home has had 18 months from the date of initial Health Home designation to achieve all 9 standards.
These standards require:
- Use of a Certified Electronic Health Record (EHR)s for select care team members
- Participation in a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) for select health care delivery organizations
- Provision of access to a singular electronic care plan for any care team member/organization consented to by the Health Home patient.
- Use of electronic clinical decision support amongst direct care providers
Initial Standards
- 6a: Health home provider has structured information systems, policies, procedures and practices to create, document, execute, and update a plan of care for every patient.
- 6b. Health home provider has a systematic process to follow-up on tests, treatments, services and referrals which is incorporated into the patient´s plan of care.
- 6c. Health home provider has a health record system which allows the patient´s health information and plan of care to be accessible to the interdisciplinary team of providers and which allows for population management and identification of gaps in care including preventive services.
- 6d: Health home provider makes use of available HIT and accesses data through the regional health information organization/qualified entity to conduct these processes, as feasible.
Final Standards
- 6e: Health home provider has structured interoperable health information technology systems, policies, procedures and practices to support the creation, documentation, execution, and ongoing management of a plan of care for every patient.
- 6f: Health home provider uses an electronic health record system that qualifies under the Meaningful Use provisions of the HITECH Act, which allows the patient´s health information and plan of care to be accessible to the interdisciplinary team of providers. If the provider does not currently have such a system, they will provide a plan for when and how they will implement it.
- 6g: Health home provider will be required to comply with the current and future version of the Statewide Policy Guidance which includes common information policies, standards and technical approaches governing health information exchange.
- 6h: Health home provider commits to joining regional health information networks or qualified health IT entities for data exchange and includes a commitment to share information with all providers participating in a care plan. RHIOs/QE (Qualified Entities) provides policy and technical services required for health information exchange through the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY)
- 6i: Health home provider supports the use of evidence based clinical decision making tools, consensus guidelines, and best practices to achieve optimal outcomes and cost avoidance. One example of such a tool is PSYCKES.
