Updated March 2, 2021
As of November 2019 all 71 of New Jersey’s acute-care hospitals were connected to and sharing data with the statewide New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN), either directly or through their regional Healthcare Information Exchange (HIE). To this day, every acute-care hospital shares data with the NJHIN on patients admitted, discharged and transferred to, or from, their facilities.
In addition, healthcare providers across the state have taken advantage of the opportunity to sign up to receive notifications about their patients’ hospital events from the NJHIN’s Admission, Discharge and Transfer (ADT) alert service. As a result, care coordination has improved as healthcare providers, facilities, and practitioners use the information provided in those alerts to reach out to individual patients and deliver appropriate follow-up care in a timely manner.
“We have heard many stories from providers who have received ADT notifications from the NJHIN and subsequently followed-up with patients’ post-discharge to offer care they otherwise might not have known was needed,” stated Jennifer D’Angelo, SVP & General Manager of the Healthcare Division at NJII. “There’s no doubt that the ongoing participation and dedicated efforts of the New Jersey hospitals to continually provide quality data has made a difference in patient outcomes.”
Meeting Requirements of the Final Rule
By participating and sharing data with the NJHIN, these hospitals are meeting one of the key requirements of the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule published on March 9, 2020, by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This rule focuses on driving interoperability and patient access to health information and establishes policies that enable better patient access to their health information, improve interoperability and unleash innovation, while reducing burden on payers and providers.
The rule outlines several key provisions related to Patient Access API, Provider Directory API, Payer-to-Payer Data Exchange, Public Reporting and Information Blocking, Digital Contact Information and Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT) Event Notifications.
CMS has modified the Conditions of Participation (CoPs) to require hospitals, including psychiatric hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), to send electronic patient event notifications of a patient’s admission, discharge, and/or transfer to another healthcare facility or to another community provider or practitioner. Hospitals are required to make this happen within 12 months after publication of the rule, or by May 1st, 2021.
Participation in the NJHIN Satisfies the ADT Notification Requirement
It is our interpretation, based on the language used in the final rule, that because the NJHIN does not impose any restrictions on recipients who want to receive ADT notifications that any hospital that participates by contributing data is thus meeting the ADT requirement set forth by the CMS final rule.
NJII, as the state-appointed entity responsible for operating the NJHIN, congratulates our hospitals for meeting this requirement ahead of schedule and making the ongoing effort to participate and share data with providers across the state.
In addition to the ADT notification requirement, hospitals, payers and other stakeholders will have to meet several requirements to stay compliant to this rule. Please see below for a list of resources that NJHIN has gathered to provide more background.
For the status of your participation in the ADT use case or any further inquiries, please reach out to NJHIN@njii.com
Additional Resources
- The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) summary page for their final rule entitled, the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program.
- The Federal Register’s full text of the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program.
- ONC Cures Act updated enforcement discretion dates and timeframes in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Original timeframe and highlighted regulatory dates for implementation of the ONC Cures Act.
- ONC’s Overview of the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule. Originally presented on March 11, 2020.
- ONC’s presentation regarding information blocking within the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule. Originally presented on March 16, 2020.
- ONC’s presentation regarding Conditions and Maintenance of Certification within the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program Final Rule. Originally presented on March 19, 2020.
- The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services press release regarding ONC’s 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program and CMS’s Interoperability and Patient Access final rule.
- CMS’s fact sheet regarding the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule.
- The Federal Register’s full text of The Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (CMS-9115-F).
- An article entitled, the Final CMS Interoperability Regulation What You Need to Know, from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Inc. (HIMSS).
- The Healthcare Financial Management Association’s summary of The Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (CMS-9115-F).