Author: Emily Hughes
NC*Notify and Patient Care: Stories from the Field
NC HealthConnex offers real-time event notifications to participating health care providers through NC*Notify, giving them more detailed information about their patient populations.
NC*Notify is a subscription-based service that notifies providers as their patients receive services across the care continuum. Based on admission, discharge, and transfer data received from more than 100 participating hospitals plus encounter data from more than 6,000 ambulatory care settings, the NC*Notify real-time event notifications provide care teams with valuable information that spans geography and care settings and support state and federal efforts to focus on patient centered care.
These real-time event notifications are especially important for providers and their teams to provide critical follow-up after patients are admitted and discharged from the emergency department or inpatient stays in hospitals. More timely response has proven effective to enhance the overall quality of care and care management.
Subscribers of the NC*Notify service have shared that the service has been particularly valuable after an emergency department visit, routine office visit or hospital stay. This ensures that their care teams follow up with their patients after they have events with other health care facilities and helps meet follow-up requirements required by some payers.
Current NC*Notify subscribers from the behavioral health community shared: “Before NC*Notify, our method of monitoring patient activity was by calling around to local hospitals and local providers by telephone and email. This was all based on our own personal working relationships. Pushing notifications to the facility has provided a more holistic view of patient activity across a complex health care system."
"Public health department leadership reported: “We initially hoped to use NC*Notify to track emergency department visits and to meet the requirements for our Tier 3 Advanced Medical Home status. While observing our first sets of notifications, our nurses learned that it was more than we had hoped for. Not only did the notifications include emergency department visit information, but also contained outpatient visit information. This additional insight allowed us to follow up with patients that we’d referred out and even track different groups within our patients.”
Learn more about NC*Notify, or enroll in the service.
Join the NC HIEA on November 18 to Learn How NC*Notify Supports the CMS Condition of Participation Requirement for Hospitals
Please join the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) for the upcoming Teletown Hall on Wednesday, November 18, that will address the update to the CMS Condition of Participation Rule to require hospitals, including psychiatric hospitals, and critical access hospitals to send electronic patient event notifications of a patient’s admission, discharge, and/or transfer (ADT) from the hospital to certain providers. The webinar will provide an overview of the rule and demonstrate how the NC HealthConnex notification service, NC*Notify, can help hospitals meet the requirement.
For NC HealthConnex Participants: Update Regarding 42 C.F.R. Part 2 Data
Recent federal regulatory changes concerning (among other things) the pandemic, substance use disorder data, and information blocking have prompted some organizations to re-examine data they are submitting to NC HealthConnex. In particular, some organizations have had questions about their ability to submit 42 C.F.R. Part 2 data to NC HealthConnex.
Like other members of the health care community, the NC HIEA continues to monitor and adjust to significant regulatory changes concerning matters such as substance use disorder records, information blocking, and COVID-19. As needed, the NC HIEA and its Advisory Board will revisit policies and procedures in response to statutory and regulatory changes and to better serve participants and North Carolina patients.
Whether your organization is a full participant or a submission-only participant, please be reminded that your agreement with the NC HIEA prohibits your organization from sending 42 C.F.R. Part 2 data to NC HealthConnex. If your organization creates Part 2 data, please continue to ensure compliance with your agreement with the NC HIEA by filtering such data from your submissions to the HIE network.
For NC HealthConnex Participants: Update Regarding Information Blocking Regulations
The NC HIEA exists to improve the quality of health care delivery in our state by facilitating the secure, timely exchange of demographic and clinical patient data.
Because of its commitment to interoperability and information sharing, the NC HIEA has been studying and monitoring closely the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking regulations promulgated earlier this year by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). As you may know, ONC announced recently an interim final rule extending compliance dates and timeframes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The applicability date for ONC’s information blocking rules is now April 5, 2021.
In the coming months the NC HIEA will continue its initial compliance efforts. To date, we have been evaluating ONC’s rules and reviewing policies and practices to ensure that the NC HIEA is not engaged in prohibited information blocking practices. As needed, the NC HIEA will consult its Advisory Board regarding potential updates to its policies, and it will provide NC HIEA stakeholders and the public with advance notice of any new and/or revised policies before they take effect. We also look forward to ONC providing additional resources concerning interpretation of the rules and their enforcement.
Importantly, NC HealthConnex will continue to facilitate – and not inhibit -- participants’ exchange of EHI in compliance with the information blocking prohibitions. The NC HIEA’ remains steadfast in its commitment to refrain from engaging in any practice that we know or should know is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information via NC HealthConnex unless we have a good-faith basis to believe an exception applies.
We encourage your organization to review the information blocking rules and determine how best to comply with them, to the extent the rules apply to your organization. If you have technical questions about NC HealthConnex or its data-sharing capabilities, please contact the NC HIEA Provider Relations team at hiea@nc.gov or (919) 754-6912.
Stay in Shape with NC AHEC Trainings!
The NC HIEA and North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) are offering a library of virtual training modules for health care providers on various NC HealthConnex services. As the state-designated health information exchange, NC HealthConnex enables providers to:
- Access patients' comprehensive records to reduce duplicative testing and support more accurate diagnoses and treatment.
- Communicate with other providers using a secure, encrypted messaging service in the NC HealthConnex web portal.
- Improve coordination across all levels of care.
To get started, providers can register for a series of five video trainings, each providing an orientation to the features and services available. Registration for the following modules is required to receive a link to the training.
- Module 1: NC HealthConnex Overview
- Module 2: Unpacking the Welcome Packet
- Module 3: PAA (Participant Account Administrator) Role and Responsibilities
- Module 4: Clinical Portal Overview
- Module 5: Direct Secure Messaging Within the NC HealthConnex Clinical Portal
These virtual offerings provide health care professionals with an introduction to NC HealthConnex or help brush up on NC HealthConnex knowledge. In the midst of a pandemic, these modules offer a stress-free method of receiving training and staying up-to-date on all applications within NC HealthConnex.
For more detailed instructions on how to use the training software, visit our
Training and Resources webpage.
Upcoming Events
Teletown Hall: Hospital Notification Requirement & NC*Notify
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, at 12 p.m. Click here to register.
How to Connect Call
Monday, November 30, 2020, at 12 p.m. Click here to register.
NC HealthConnex Dental Work Group
Thursday, December 10, 2020, at 2 p.m. Click here to join.
Partner News & Events
NC Chapter of HIMSS Virtual Fall Conference: Transforming Healthcare from the Mountains to the Sea
November 17-18, 2020
- Using Timely & Targeted Notifications for Better Care Coordination
November 17, 2020, from 2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Click here to register.
i2i Virtual Pinehurst Conference
December 2-4, 2020
- Tracking Patient Outcomes During a Pandemic Using NC HealthConnex
December 2, 2020, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Click here to register.
AHEC Medicaid Managed Care Webinar Series for Providers
Medicaid Managed Care Fireside Chat Webinar Series
Every first Thursday of the month from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Click here to register for Medicaid Managed Care topics
Hosted by Shannon Dowler, MD, Chief Medical Officer, NC Division of Health Benefits. Moderated by Hugh Tilson, Director, NC AHEC Program.
- Thursday, December 3, 2020 | Beneficiary Attribution
- Thursday, January 7, 2021 | Policy Approvals, Process Changes, and Appeals
- Thursday, February 4, 2021 | Value Based Payment/Advanced payment Models and Quality
Clinical Quality Webinar Series
Every third Thursday of the month from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Click here to register for Clinical Quality Topics
Hosted by Shannon Dowler, MD, Chief Medical Officer, NC Division of Health Benefits, and Tom Wroth, MD, CEO, Community Care of North Carolina. Moderated by Hugh Tilson, Director of the NC AHEC Program.
- Thursday, November 19, 2020 | Women’s Health
- Thursday, December 17, 2020 | Behavioral Health
- Thursday, January 21 | TBD
In the News
Health Policy Center: EHR Reporting Program
The 21st Century Cures Act, or Cures Act, directed the US Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Program. https://www.urban.org
Has Telehealth Filled the Primary Care Gap During the Pandemic?
Telehealth visits did account for 35 percent of all primary care encounters in Q2 2020, but it wasn’t enough to fill the primary care void at the height of COVID-19. https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/
Digitalization of Healthcare is Needed to Digitally Empower Patients
Rahma Samow, senior VP of marketing and sales for Siemens Healthineers, says AI-enabled decision-making addresses critical data pain points along the patient's pathway. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/
Mental Health Patients Fill the ER, Waiting Weeks for Help
Due to a lack of mental health community services, more patients are languishing in emergency departments — sometimes for weeks — waiting for an inpatient psychiatric bed to open up somewhere in North Carolina. https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/