For Care Seekers (patients, clients)
Now more than ever, care seekers must expect and demand that their care providers work together and leverage all the tools available to them to coordinate and personalize care.
Michigan Health Information Network is our state’s 501(c)(3) non profit designated entity responsible for securely delivering information on your medications, health history, allergies, lab results, test results and hospitalizations in real time between your different healthcare providers.
A public and private partnership, we are collaboratively governed by representatives from Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, health insurance plans, hospitals, primary care physicians, and others across the healthcare ecosystem dedicated to improving the healthcare experience, advancing quality of care and decreasing cost for Michigan’s people through the state wide exchange of health information (making valuable data available at the point of care.)
MiHIN receives health information from our participants–a wide range of health systems, providers, labs, pharmacies, health plans, and other community stakeholders; matches it to the appropriate person across all the disparate provider source systems; monitors not only who needs that information, but also who is authorized to access it; and then provide it securely and privately to the authorized users.
Inefficient care delivery, when doctors don’t effectively ‘talk’ to each other, results in $130 billion in wasteful spending every year. As a result of inefficient care delivery systems, patients receive repetitive tests and/or health complications, reduced functional capacities and often require further medical care in the future. Nationally, an estimated 251,454 people die annually from medical errors. Adjusted for MI (3.09% of US population) that is 7,768 people a year–or over 8 times more people dying from medical errors than from car crashes.
So, why do we exist?
To solve for: A lack of coordinated care and inefficient systems
To support: a streamlined delivery of care to improve health outcomes.
The opportunity to create a more responsible tech future is massive. MiHIN has built technology and infrastructure to work in the public interest–it is free from corporate profit motives and works tirelessly towards the integration, incentivization, compensation and coordination of the disparate sectors with whom we work.
MiHIN is Your HIN (Health information Network)
Healthcare organizations who access information sent from MiHIN, are subject to strict confidentiality and accountability standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, Covered Entities and Business Associates are able to share information about patients that they have in common for specific purposes.
Those are for the purposes of treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. It also allows sharing for public health purposes, though this is subject to slightly different
rules under HIPAA.
All organizations connected to MiHIN have signed comprehensive data sharing and trust agreements to provide greater protection of information shared.
Your Information; Your Rights
You have control over your health records. You can decide if you want to share your records with your providers. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule provides you with health information privacy rights. These rights are important for you to know. You can exercise these rights, ask questions about them, and file a complaint if you think your rights are being denied or your health information isn’t being protected.
Your health information rights include:
- Right to access your health information
- Right to an accounting of disclosures of your health information
- Right to correct or amend your health information
WHAT DO YOUR HEALTH RECORDS SHOW?
- Your health problems
- Your medicines
- Your test results
- Your past care, such as recent provider visits and surgeries
- Your allergies
CAN I OPT OUT WITH MIHIN DIRECTLY?
MiHIN facilitates opt out of health information exchange directly with care seekers in limited situations. We support opt out of our community health record, which is oftentimes referred to as Longitudinal Health Record (LHR) or Virtual Integrated Patient Record (VIPR). To do so, you must complete the standard form, which requires filling out limited pieces of demographic information (so we can appropriately locate your record) and utilizing a notary so we are able to confirm you are who you say you are.
State of the Art Security and Privacy Measures
Securing HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Certified status demonstrates that MiHIN’s platforms and facilities have met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and are appropriately managing risk.
This achievement places MiHIN in an elite group of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification. By including federal and state regulations, standards, and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST Assurance Program helps organizations address security and data protection challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls.
“MiHIN’s HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year Certification is evidence that they are at the forefront of industry best practices for information risk management and compliance.”– Jeremy Huval, Chief Innovation Officer, HITRUST.
Talk With Your Providers About Health Information Exchange
U.S. adults spend the equivalent of an entire eight-hour workday per month coordinating healthcare for themselves and/or their family or loved ones, according to a May 2023 patient experience survey conducted by The Harris Poll, on behalf of the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA).
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Providers are also the best resource for opting patients out of health information exchange because they are able to verify the identity of the patient when the request is given, and further, to ensure they are not continuing to send that patient’s information to MiHIN against an individual’s wishes. Under our legal agreements and associated Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with entities, they agree they will not send us information unless they have the appropriate consent or authorization in place necessary.
For information shared for Treatment, Payment, and Healthcare operations, an entity may be able to share without consent so long as the individual has not requested their information not be shared.
For information that requires consent, such as specially protected information (SPI), the entity should not share with MiHIN unless they obtain the proper consent. An example of this would be substance use disorder information from a federally protected 42 CFR Part 2 facility.