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Supporting a leading Health Information Exchange with accurate identity data management

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Background

Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) play integral roles in helping healthcare providers share accurate information in order to better serve their patients and communities. However, when that information comes from a wide variety of sources- each with its own level of reliability- the challenge can seem insurmountable. That’s why Contexture, the leading nonprofit regional HIE for Arizona and Colorado, turned to Verato to help improve its identity data management. This partnership has led to more than better data management; it has opened the door for state agencies and healthcare providers to help even more people who need it.

Verato has helped Contexture address each of its key challenges—and make a difference in delivering care and support to people who need it throughout Arizona and Colorado.

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Adding value for 27 million patients by improving experiences and efficiency

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$7M additional WIC funding identified by matching Colorado Medicaid recipients to WIC data source

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Matching and linking data from over 1,500 unique data senders

Challenge

Understanding who people are across systems and providers

Contexture was facing several significant challenges, each tied to equally significant opportunities to serve healthcare providers and recipients across Arizona and Colorado.

Many data sources: Working with data from a large number of sources makes building a 360-degree view for one person complex. With multiple data sources per person (e.g., hospital, home health, behavioral health), duplicate records are nearly unavoidable without the right system in place.

Varying data quality: Some sources of data have consistently lower quality than others (e.g., incomplete records or hight percentage of duplicates). Contexture wanted to include information from all sources, but needed the ability to prioritize higher-quality data sources for identity-matching decisions.

Missing links across state departments: State programs were missing linkages across departments, programs, and systems- and this presented more than a clerical headache. When it comes to critical social support programs, a missed opportunity to match a member of one program with another could be a missed opportunity to connect that person to other resources for which they also qualify. Often, identifying eligibility for additional assistance (like WIC) will also bring additional federal funding to the state.

"Our partnership with Verato really allows us to go on autopilot and allow technology to do the work instead of pulling staff resources and relying on our staff to have to make really hard, difficult, complex identity decisions. "

Deanna Towne, Chief Information Officer, Contexture

Solution

Linked identity data for a more competitive view of people

For more than six years, Contexture has partnered with Verato to help manage identities within the health information exchange. Contexture uses Verato hMDM™, to help accurately resolve and manage identity data so that records for one patient or member that live in siloed systems can be confidently linked together- enabling a more complete view of that person.

“One of the key challenges that we face as a health information exchange is understanding who people are when we receive their data,” comments Deanna Towne, Chief Information Officer, Contexture. “We receive data from thousands of sources all the time, in real time. Ensuring that we understand the identity of those individuals who cross systems and cross providers is really important to make sure that we’re helping to get the patient’s information to the right entities, so that they can provide the best patient care possible.”.

Results

Delivering better care and support

Verato has helped Contexture address each of its key challenges- and make a difference in delivering care and support to people who need it throughout Arizona and Colorado. Including,

Managing multiple data sources with confidence: Contexture uses Verato as an entry point to match records to people at data ingestion, automatically landing new records on the right identity. This enables complete and trusted longitudinal records for patients including data from a vast set of care settings and clinical sources, and  eliminates creation of duplicate records at ingestion, that would then need to be resolved by data stewards. 

Accommodating data quality differences with Match Tiers: Verato allows Contexture to rate, or tier, sources according to each data set’s strength and reliability (e.g. complete records or low percentage of duplicates). It also allows inclusion/exclusion lists for authoritative sources. 

Connecting the dots to provide the right services to people who need them: A strong partnership between Contexture, Verato, and state agencies also helps identify people who may be eligible for services they are not currently receiving. For example, someone receiving Medicaid and/or SNAP benefits may also be eligible for WIC. Accurate matching helps identify these people and offer them help they may need. 

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Customer Testimonial: Deanna Towne, Contexture
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