Are you in Compliance with NC Law? Connecting North Carolina's State Funded Providers to the NC Health Information Exchange

One of the goals of a transformed health care system is for real-time clinical and demographic data to be made available to all health care providers involved in a patient's care so that they can securely share health information concerning that patient with each other. 

North Carolina's state-designated health information exchange, NC HealthConnex, was created in 2015 by the North Carolina General Assembly to help bridge the gap between disparate systems and health care networks to support whole patient care. With 4 million unique patient records and growing, NC HealthConnex is working to connect the state's health care providers to deliver a holistic view of a patient's record. The North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) is the agency managing the statewide NC HealthConnex.

What's the law?
State law (NCSL 2015-241 as amended by NCSL 2017-57) requires that all health care providers who receive any state funds for the provision of health care services (e.g. Medicaid, NC Health Choice, State Health Plan, etc.) connect and submit patient demographic and clinical data to NC HealthConnex by certain dates in 2018 and 2019 in order to continue to receive payment for services.

  • Hospitals as defined by G.S. 131E-176(3), physicians licensed to practice under Article 1 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes, physician assistants as defined in 21 NCAC 32S .0201 and nurse practitioners as defined in 21 NCAC 36 .0801 who provide Medicaid services and who have an electronic health record system shall connect by June 1, 2018.
  • All other providers of Medicaid and state-funded services shall connect by June 1, 2019.
  • LME/MCOs are required to submit claims and encounter data by June 1, 2020.

This law was updated in the most recent legislative session (NCSL 2017-57) to provide more time for connectivity for providers not currently utilizing an electronic health record for patient care. 

NOTE: For those providers who are not currently utilizing an electronic health record system (EHR/EMR) in their practice, the average time for procurement (6-9 months), implementation (3-6 months), and onboarding to NC HealthConnex (3-4 months) is 12-18 months.

How to Connect? 
The first step in connection is reviewing and signing the Participation Agreement. The Participation Agreement is the contract that governs data sharing between your practice and the NC HIEA. This agreement can be easily found on the How to Connect Webpage with instructions for completion.

The second step is to have the technology in place. The NC HIEA Participation Agreement requests EHRs that are minimally capable of sending HL7 messages, version 2 and higher. The NC HIEA has also created a technology specification and minimum data target that can be found here. This document can also be used to ensure that your EHR vendor can meet the technology standards.

 

Request a Connection Extension

Additionally, NC HIEA, in collaboration with the NC Department of Health and Human Services, has developed a process that allows health care providers to request extensions to complete their connection to NC HealthConnex. To request a connection extension, providers must: 
 

1. Have signed an NC HIEA Participation Agreement, and 
2. Can demonstrate how their organization plans to connect to NC HealthConnex within one calendar year. 

If the provider organization meets these criteria, complete a form located at nchealthconnex.gov/providers/extension-process.

Providers with questions can contact the NC HIEA staff at 919-754-6912 or hiea@nc.gov.