FAQs

Question: Why use MEDNET for my HIE?
Answer: The MEDNET team has extensive, unsurpassed national experience with Health Information Exchange (HIE). MEDNET has designed, and built multiple regional, statewide and national HIEs. MEDNET is an expert on, and fully certified with NHIN, the Nationwide Health Information Network, a key component of the Federal Health Architecture (FHA). MEDNET provides technology solutions and clinical/administrative applications for building HIEs, as well as expertise connecting existing HIEs to NHIN. MEDNET has partnered with industry leading experts on meaningful use, HIE sustainability, Medicaid/State HIT planning, and provider adoption to insure your HIE is not just technology. Working with MEDNET will insure your HIE is operational, sustainable, meaningful, and in use by your providers and members.

Question: How secure are MEDNET HIE Solutions?
Answer: MEDNET solutions insure complete security and patient privacy. MEDNET has adopted a higher level of security for Health Information Exchange (HIE), including the new federal Level 3 security and assurance standards. By utilizing higher security methodologies than username and password, MEDNET HIE customers ensure the privacy of patient's data. HIEs that still use legacy username/password technologies put patient privacy at greater risk, as well as risk exposure of the entire medical information/databases to the Internet.

Question: What is NHIN?
Answer: NHIN stands for the Nationwide Health Information Network. NHIN was developed by the US Federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, commonly known as ONC. NHIN runs over the Internet and connects federal agencies, public health and groups of hospitals, clinics, and similar organizations that are part of a Health Information Exchange, or HIE. MEDNET has adopted and are experts in the new NHIN standard for securely sharing health care information over the Internet. MEDNET's Service is fully tested and compliant with NHIN and ONC's CONNECT NHIN software. MEDNET is listed as a partner and adopter on the ONC CONNECT NHIN website at www.connectopensource.org.

Question: What is an HIE?
Answer: A Health Information Exchange (HIE) is any group of hospitals, and/or clinics, and/or public health and/or other health care organizations that band together to securely share health care information between them. HIEs are often organized within a city, a country/region, or at a state level. The NHIN software was designed so that all of these HIEs can use an NHIN gateway to connect to the federal government or other HIEs.

Question: How do I build an HIE?
Answer: Building an HIE is a complex undertaking. MEDNET works with its customers to minimize the challenges of implementing and managing an HIE. Our goal is for our customers to feel like the HIE implementation is simple and they can trust MEDNET to provide them the solutions to become operational, making a complex process simple and easy. An HIE requires not only technology, but overall policies about operating the HIE, building a sustainable HIE and participating in the HIE. MEDNET provides technology solutions to not only build HIEs, but also to connect HIEs to NHIN. MEDNET has also partnered with experts in the HIE operational and functional training and consulting space. By partnering with these experts, MEDNET provides a complete HIE solution – technology, NHIN connectivity, operational and organizational training and planning, and a pathway to meaningful use.

Question: Why has MEDNET adopted the NHIN?
Answer: NHIN is a modern and secure system based on open standards, is backed the United States Government, and is a key piece of the Federal Health Architecture (FHA).

Question: What are the NHIN Standards?
Answer: NHIN defines a large number of standards to ensure that communications using this system are secure and can connect to everyone on the network. NHIN also has a set of policies that ensure the NHIN is only used for secure, private communications between participants. MEDNET developers chair some of the NHIN committees and influence the design of new services, insuring MEDNET maintains its expertise and to ensure our customers have full compliance with NHIN standards and the Federal Health Architecture (FHA).

Question: What Federal Services are available via NHIN?
Answer: Social Security Administration (SSA) is the first agency to develop a large NHIN capability. MEDNET is a participant in this connectivity project with SSA. The SSA service will allow injured workers to get their benefits faster, receiving benefits in days rather than months (which is currently what happens using the paper-based system in use today). Additionally MEDNET is working with the Department of Defense, Medicare/Medicaid systems, the VA and Centers for Disease Control to help build federal connectivity over NHIN.

Question: What are the technical details on NHIN?
Answer: NHIN is based on a modern SOA architecture using the latest PKI security architectures. All of the services are SOAP-based defined by WSDL files. Adding new services is usually adding additional service definitions via WSDL approved by the NHIN architecture committees. All communications are encrypted with client-server authenticated TLS connections to ensure security and trust between servers. Additionally each NHIN message is encrypted and digitally signed to ensure each message is secure and unchanged as it is routed over the Internet. Each NHIN message includes a SAML2.0 header which can contain an identity assertion from a trusted identity management system.

Question: Can I build my HIE and NHIN connectivity myself?
Answer: If you have the expertise you could build it all yourself. MEDNET solutions can be added onto an HIE or used to build an HIE. MEDNET services are modular and are designed to fit the specific needs of the customer. Whether you have MEDNET build your HIE from scratch, add on MEDNET services, or just use the MEDNET Federal NHIN Solutions, MEDNET is here to support you and your HIE on the path to meaningful use.

Question: So why do I need MEDNET?
Answer: When building your HIE, these are usually many planning, policy, technical and operational details to take care of. MEDNET can provide all or some of these as necessary to ensure you build a high quality, standards-based and secure system that isn't an island. For example, you should include a Patient Consent Management System (patient opt-in/opt-out system). This is relatively complex and must be implemented at the HIE level, so when a patient opts out at one clinic, they are automatically opted out of the entire HIE. MEDNET has the solutions and expertise to insure your HIE has a Patient Consent Management System, and complies with any local or statewide laws.

Question: How will my disparate HIE members share data securely?
Answer: MEDNET provides a light-weight “edge server” called the MEDNET Gateway™. The MEDNET Gateway is installed locally on the provider's network (behind their firewall), ensuring that all patient data stays locally, and is shared only when appropriate and very securely within the HIE. MEDNET also provides a complete audit and logging facility so participants can monitor the sharing of patient data across the HIE, and of course full, standards-based NHIN connectivity to other HIEs and to federal agencies.

Question: How does MEDNET software work with my EMR?
Answer: MEDNET works closely with EMR vendors to ensure compatibility. EMR vendors in the past have developed many proprietary standards for connectivity which the MEDNET Gateway™ can help bridge. Additionally many newer EMR vendors are implementing IHE standards which make their connectivity even easier and more standards based. MEDNET supports both these older systems and the newer EMR systems to ensure secure, auditable sharing of clinical and administrative information within a community, across a region or state, or nationally.

Question: Does MEDNET have an API that I can connect to?
Answer: MEDNET has an API for EMR and other vendors to connect with, to ensure national connectivity. For example, Emdeon and MEDNET demonstrated an integrated system at the 2010 HIMSS health care show, where Emdeon build the MEDNET Record Locator Service™ (RLS) into their Office software. Additional we jointly demonstrated the Emdeon Office product connecting to a new federal Medicaid Eligibility Service which MEDNET helped design with NHIN.

Question: What HIEs has MEDNET built and worked with?
Answer: MEDNET is a leader in HIE building and NHIN deployment, and has worked with multiple HIEs nationwide. For example, MEDNET designed and built the three state HIE called HIE-Bridge (Duluth, Minnesota), with over 3.5 million covered lives. MEDNET was awarded the State of North Dakota Contract for planning and designing the North Dakota Statewide HIE. MEDNET works with the Lewis and Clark Information Exchange (LACIE), a four-state HIE based in Missouri on NHIN connectivity to CMS and DoD for bi-directional clinical data exchange. MEDNET is also implementing the Social Security Administration NHIN Contract for HIE-based CCD clinical data exchange.

Question: What models of HIE does MEDNET support?
Answer: MEDNET support all 3 models of HIE, Federated, Centralized and Hybrid. MEDNET has specific expertise with all three models, having worked with and designed all three models of Health Information Exchange.

Question: What do you support for Master Patient Indexing (eMPI)?
Answer: MEDNET has developed a sophisticated distributed eMPI and integrated this eMPI into the MEDNET Gateway. This allows for all three models of HIE to utilize the MEDNET eMPI, regardless of architecture (Federated, Hybrid or Centralized). Additionally, MEDNET has experience implementing the MEDNET eMPI for HIEs, providers, and State Government Agencies.

Question: What certifications does MEDNET hold?
Answer: MEDNET is IHE certified, and in full compliance with Patient Consent Management and Record Locator Service State Laws. MEDNET is also tested and fully compliant with NHIN, and is listed as such on the ONC NHIN website at connectopensource.org.

Question: What EMRs does MEDNET support? Does MEDNET provide an EMR?
Answer: MEDNET is EMR agnostic, and has deployed a partnership strategy for delivering Electronic Medical Record systems and EMR Lite solutions to HIEs and our customers. MEDNET has successfully partnered with Allscripts, Emdeon, Greenway, McKesson, RelayHealth, and several others. Additionally, MEDNET has implemented EMR interfaces with Cerner, Epic, GE, Meditech and others.

Question: Why should I partner with MEDNET?
Answer: MEDNET is a unique organization that provides a full solution for HIE. MEDNET provides full service solutions that combine technology solutions meaningful use implementation, HIE sustainability, HIE operational planning, HIE and provider outreach, State Medicaid/State HIT and more. MEDNET with its partners insure that your HIE solution will be more than a technology solution, and that providers and HIE members will utilize and support your HIE.

Question: How does MEDNET software help improve efficiency?
Answer: MEDNET products, such as the MEDNET Patient Lookup, automate sluggish manual processes, like locating the record of a visiting patient, to improve the speed at which information flows. The MEDNET Patient Lookup will improve efficiency by decreasing the time to locate medical records. Similarly, the MEDNET Patient Consent Management System decreases the time to verify patient consent, the MEDNET eReferral solution decreases the time to find and write a referral, the MEDNET Single Sign On solution decreases time spent logging on to access electronic information.