Due to its dimension, Texas was by no means going to have only one well being data alternate group. However getting regional HIEs there to share information has additionally confirmed difficult. Now two of Texas’ largest well being data exchanges – C3HIE and Texas Well being Providers Authority (THSA) – have signed an settlement for bidirectional sharing of encounter occasion messages for therapy functions.
At the moment serving over 128 counties, C3HIE is a multi-region nonprofit collaborative connecting healthcare suppliers by way of safe bi-directional well being data alternate with ADTs, lab outcomes, imaging outcomes, notes, and CCDs. THSA is a statutory group to advertise and allow interoperability throughout Texas. It accomplishes this function by way of its state-level well being data alternate (and privateness and safety certification and supporting applications).
For the primary time, collaborating organizations will obtain encounter data from throughout each networks, giving clinicians and care managers a extra full image of a affected person’s well being journey, THSA mentioned. Subscribers will achieve complete occasion notifications from each HIE networks with out the burden of managing a number of connections, integrations, or vendor relationships. The unified method reduces administrative complexity whereas increasing the attain and worth of the information accessible to assist scientific and operational decision-making.
Phil Beckett turned THSA’s CEO in January 2025. He had beforehand served as CEO of C3HIE. In an interview with Healthcare Innovation a number of months in the past, he defined that THSA was created in 2007 primarily in response to Hurricane Katrina, when lots of people evacuated from Louisiana to Texas with out their medical information, and physicians have been making an attempt to care for them. “Individuals mentioned let’s have one thing in Texas that promotes interoperability,” he defined. “Then when the ARRA funding got here in, Texas acquired about $25 million from the federal authorities by way of the HITECH Act to fund THSA, and the method was to assist regional HIEs. Texas is so massive we needed a regional mannequin, and 12 acquired funded on the time.”
The concept was the areas would join regionally, take care of their very own communities, after which they’d join centrally by way of THSA to share information between them. However for these 12, sustainability was a problem, he famous. “It’s a tricky enterprise mannequin, and a few of them simply merely did not make it,” Beckett mentioned. Now the state is down to 5 regional well being data exchanges.
And the imaginative and prescient of getting regional HIEs share information with one another didn’t occur the best way it was envisioned, however Beckett and THSA proceed working towards that purpose. “I got here from a regional well being data alternate, and I believed possibly I might assist get again to this mannequin of everybody working collectively,” he mentioned. “There are some state incentives which have inspired that as nicely. Texas Well being and Human Providers has labored laborious to attempt to get hospitals, payers, and well being data exchanges aligned.”
THSA added that the door is open for all HIEs to take part and develop this community.
