More than 45 hospitals and another 50 clinics in the Lone Star State will share data and best practices through an HIE platform, giving them important tools to improve care and participate in a new quality payment program.
A network of more than 45 rural hospitals and another 50 clinics in Texas is partnering with a health information exchange to improve data exchange and interoperability, giving the hospitals a better foundation for sustainability.
The Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH) is joining forces with C3HIE, a non-profit community HIE in the TORCH clinically integrated network (CIN), which was launched in 2021 to pursue value-based care opportunities. TORCH, which consists of 27 hospitals and 51 clinics, will add more than 20 new hospitals to the CIN through the C3HIE partnership.
The collaboration gives rural hospitals and clinics, many of which are struggling to stay open, an important platform for interoperability. Through the CIN, these organizations can exchange healthcare data through their EHRs, exchanging analytics tools and best practices to improve care management and coordination.
“We know rural hospitals are better together,” John Henderson, president and CEO of Round Rock-based TORCH, said in an e-mail to HealthLeaders. “Our partnership with C3HIE overcomes geographic isolation and connects our hospitals and clinics to help our rural communities.”
“When our rural providers are better connected across the state, they’ll know earlier about treatment outside their county,” he said. “They’ll be able to get [patients] into the clinic quicker for follow up. They’ll also get access to risk assessment tools using community health information to ensure the higher risk patients get the care plans they need [and] improve the ‘right care at the right time’ concept.”
As part of the collaboration, the hospitals and clinics in the CIN will have the data aggregation capabilities to participate in the Aligning Technology by Linking Interoperable Systems (ATLIS) Medicaid quality payment program, which the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in FY 2024.
The network also has value-based contracts in place with Aetna, Amerigroup and United Healthcare.
“Rural hospitals that can demonstrate achievement by region will benefit financially from ATLIS,” Henderson said, noting that hospitals could save at least $150,000 per year, which would go back into improving infrastructure and data capture.
Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are struggling to stay open, many because they don’t have the resources they need to improve care and reduce expenses.
A Texas network of rural hospitals and clinics is partnering with a non-profit HIE to create a technology platform that will help hospitals and clinics share data and qualify for a Medicaid quality payment program launching this year.
The network hopes to use this platform to improve care management and coordination and save at least $150,000 per hospital per year.