How to Connect to a Health Information Exchange in TherapyNotes

A Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a system that facilitates the secure and efficient sharing of health-related information among different healthcare organizations and providers. Its primary purpose is to ensure that patient health data is available to authorized individuals whenever and wherever it is needed, thereby improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare delivery.

TherapyNotes will automatically queue and submit data to HIE program(s) configured for your practice each time a note is signed and saved to the patient chart. We currently support the submission of basic encounter data, similar to what is included on a health insurance claim, to the following HIE registries:

HealthConnex (North Carolina)
Connie (Connecticut)

What Information is Sent?

TherapyNotes has reached an agreement with each supported HIE registry to send information that meets the minimum necessary data standards to comply with the programs. This includes information such as patient and provider demographics, encounter information such as the date and time of the session, service codes, and the patient’s diagnosis code.

You will have the opportunity upon connection setup to identify the clinicians and payers within your practice you wish to participate. Once your connection between the HIE and TherapyNotes has been established, TherapyNotes will automatically send the required data when relevant notes are signed by a participating clinician, and only for consented patients residing in the state associated to the HIE that are assigned to at least one of the participating payers.

Role Required: Practice Administrator

To setup and manage an HIE connection:

For each HIE registry, you will first need to establish an agreement with the individual entity and receive unique connection information to use during setup within TherapyNotes.

For more information and to get started connecting with NC HealthConnex, visit hiea.nc.gov.
For more information and to get started connecting with Connie, visit www.ConnieCT.org.

Once you have received your connection details,

Click Settings > Health Information Exchange

Under Supported HIE Registries click the name of the HIE registry you wish to connect to.

Review the Connection Settings to make sure that all prior steps to setup your HIE connection have been completed. It is necessary to contact your HIE registry for information on how to start the onboarding process.
Enter the provided Organization ID.

Note: The required Organization ID will come directly from your region’s HIE account manager.

Configure the Patient Submission Settings for this registry
Under the Organization ID, you will be prompted to select one of the following:
- Consent required on individual patient info settings to submit data.
  - This option will require consent to be indicated on the patient’s record before any of the patient’s data is submitted to the HIE registry.
    No consent required on individual patient info settings to submit data.
  - This option will start sending messages for qualifying patients, unless the patient has been opted out on their individual patient info settings.

How to Set Submission Consent for an Individual Patient

Navigate to the Patient’s Health Information Exchange Settings

Go to Patients > Patient Name > Info Tab > Health Information Exchange at the bottom of the Info tab.
Select the Consent Status in the dropdown.
Click Save Changes.

Update Consent Status

Patient Consented: The patient agrees to participate in the Health Information Exchange.
Patient Opted Out: The patient declines to participate in the Health Information Exchange.
No Consent: Consent status has not been selected.

Select the Payer Settings for the HIE registry connection
- Submit data for all payers, including direct pay
  - Use this option to submit data for all qualifying patients, regardless of their assigned payer(s).
    Submit data for selected payers
  - Use this option to submit data for qualifying patients assigned to a specific selection of payers within your practice.

Select the Clinician Settings for the HIE registry connection

Submit data for all clinicians
- Use this option to submit data for all qualifying patients across all clinicians within your practice.
  Submit data for selected clinicians
- Use this option to submit data for qualifying patients assigned to a specific selection of clinicians within your practice.

Click Save HIE Settings.

We recommend that providers who submit to Medicare to also check the status of their MIPS eligibility as well. For more information on MIPS, visit our blog post here.

Viewing Submission History

The Search HIE Data Submissions panel allows you to review a history of submissions, and their associated status for the enabled registries for your practice. You can filter by HIE Registry, Patient, Clinician, Payer, and Service date to view related submissions.