For Patients

Your health information belongs to you. MiHIN helps your
care team share the right information at the right time.

 

MiHIN is Michigan’s health information network 

Your health history rarely lives in one place. A hospital stay, labs drawn across town, a specialist on a different system, an urgent care visit while traveling. Each creates a record, usually in a system that cannot see the others. You should be able to count on your care team having the full picture, and on being able to see it yourself.

Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN) is Michigan’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit state-designated entity for health information exchange. We securely deliver information about your medications, health history, allergies, lab and test results, and hospitalizations between your different healthcare providers, in real time.

How it works

MiHIN receives health information from our participants — a wide range of health systems, providers, labs, pharmacies, health plans and other organizations that take part in your care. We match that information to the right person across many different provider systems. We track both who needs the information and who is authorized to see it. Then we deliver it securely and privately to those authorized users.

We do not change the content of your health information. What your provider recorded is what your care team sees.

We are not an insurer and not a health system. We do not provide medical care, and we do not decide what goes into your record. We move health information securely between the organizations that do.

What this means for you

  • Your care team can see more of your history — including care you received somewhere else — without waiting on a fax or a phone call.
  • An emergency room can learn what you are allergic to and what you take, at the moment that information matters most.
  • Your primary care doctor can find out you were admitted to a hospital, so someone follows up after you get home.
  • You repeat yourself less, and you repeat tests less often.

None of this asks anything of you. It is already working in the background across the organizations in our network.

Your information, your rights

You have a right to your own health information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule gives you health information privacy rights. These rights are important to know. You can exercise them, ask questions about them, and file a complaint if you believe your rights are being denied or your health information is not 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 

The 21st Century Cures Act went further, making it the rule that your health information should not be unreasonably blocked from reaching you. 

If you believe your rights have been denied, you can contact us at help@mihin.org, or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights at  https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/smartscreen/main.jsf  

How to get a copy 

Exercising your right of access has usually meant contacting each provider separately. MiHIN can shorten that process, because we already receive information about you from participating organizations across the state. Our job is to make your information available securely. How you receive and use it is your choice. 

Through Selfiie 

MiHIN works with Selfiie, a personal health application that lets you request the health information available through MiHIN and receive it in one place. Selfiie verifies that you are who you say you are, then sends your request to MiHIN and other health information exchanges on its network. Selfiie passes your information through to you — it does not keep a copy of your records. 

Four steps:

  1. Scan the QR code below, or open the link. This takes you to Selfiie. 
  2. Create your Selfiie account. 
  3. Verify your identity with CLEAR — the same service used at many airports. You will need a government-issued photo ID and a phone that can take a photo. 
  4. Request your records. What is available comes back to you, and you can view it or download it. 

Cannot scan? http://selfiie.me opens the same page.

Taking part in HIE, and opting out

You have control over your health records. You can decide whether your records are shared with your providers through MiHIN. 

Opting out through your providers 

The best way to opt out of all health information exchange is to work with your providers. They can verify your identity when you make the request, and they can make sure they stop sending your information to MiHIN. Only your providers can stop the information from being sent in the first place, which is why this is the more complete option. 

Opting out with MiHIN directly 

MiHIN  can stop one specific thing: our community health record — the combined view of your health information over time, often called the Longitudinal Health Record, or LHR. Opting out with us does not stop your providers from continuing to send us your information. It means we stop making it available: a provider searching the community health record will not see your health information, and we will not deliver it to other organizations in our network. 

To do this, complete the notarized standard form.  Notarization lets us confirm your identity before we act on the request. The form asks for a limited amount of demographic information so we can locate your record. 

Cost, and changing your mind 

Unless you decide to opt out, your records will be shared through MiHIN at no cost to you. You can change your mind at any time, in either direction.  To opt out later, complete an opt-out form at your provider location, where they can verify your identity. To opt back in after you have opted out, at your next provider visit, agree to share your information with the health information exchange the next time you are asked. 

Learn more through our Consumer Privacy Policy: https://mihin.org/consumer-privacy-policy/ 

Security and Privacy Measures

Healthcare organizations that 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, healthcare organizations and the companies that work on their behalf (Covered Entities and Business Associates) are able to share information about patients they have in common, for specific purposes: treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. Sharing is also allowed for public health purposes, though that is subject to slightly different rules under HIPAA.  

For information shared for treatment, payment and healthcare operations, an organization may be able to share without consent, so long as the individual has not requested that their information not be shared. 

Some information requires your explicit consent before it can be shared at all. Specially protected information (SPI) will not be shared by the provider organization unless it obtains the proper consent from you. An example would be substance use disorder information from a federally protected 42 CFR Part 2 facility. 

All organizations connected to MiHIN have signed comprehensive data sharing and trust agreements, which provide greater protection of the information shared. 

Additionally, MiHIN holds HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Certified, which means our  platforms and services have met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and are appropriately managing risk. 

For any additional questions or concerns, you can contact MiHIN at help@mihin.org or by calling (844)454-2443 Monday-Friday, 8:00am – 5:00pm ET.