HIE participants using the eClinicalWorks (eCW) electronic health record (EHR) system can now share their organizations’ critical patient health information with HealthInfoNet in discrete HL7 v.2.x formatted clinical data sets in addition to the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA) format. Previously, eCW participants were only able to share information with HealthInfoNet in the CCDA format.

The advancement of the HIE’s integration with the eCW EHR system comes in part due to the Office of MaineCare Services’ Primary Care Plus (PCPlus) program. While the PCPlus program does not require participating primary care practices to maintain a connection with the statewide HIE to meet its basic level of reimbursement (i.e., Tier I), an HL7-based data-sharing connection is required for the higher intermediate (i.e., Tier II) and advanced (i.e., Tier III) reimbursement levels to support the program’s clinical quality measurement efforts.

Motivated by higher-tier reimbursement levels and the opportunity to improve data interoperability efforts, primary care practices recently joined forces with eCW to enable the EHR’s transmission of patient health information in the HL7 v.2.x format. In addition to the incentives offered through the PCPlus program, the change unlocks new opportunities for eCW participants to leverage the HIE’s services to support patient care and population health management use cases. eCW participants’ information is now able to be seamlessly incorporated within patients’ comprehensive statewide health records and used within population-level analytics and reporting.

Bucksport Regional Health Center is the first HIE participant using the eCW EHR system to support HL7-based data submission, with several other participants actively engaged to do the same in the near future. To learn more about how eCW organizations can now share discrete data sets with HealthInfoNet, please contact our Client Engagement team at clientengagement@hinfonet.org.