Once again, Buff Colchagoff, CEO of RosettaHealth, authored his annual Heath IT Answers holiday guest article, and this year’s piece was aptly titled, “The HIE Santa Clause is Coming to Town: How to Outlast the HIE Burgermeister Meisterburger in 2021.”

For those who remember the 1970s Christmas classic claymation story, “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town,” it's a story how a young Kris Kringle was able to overcome the selfish and shortsighted town master “the Burgermeister Meisterburger” – and ultimately bring Christmas to life.

In how this all ties into health data exchange, this metaphorical example highlights how HIEs are Kris Kringle, and the Burgermeister Meisterburger represent the villainous challenges that HIES will face this year.

When it comes to Bugermesiterian [sic] challenges, here’s what Buff highlighted in the article:

• HIE Customers Often Don't Know Your Value: Sometimes based on regulatory “musts” or being told HIE connections are for the greater good, many times data sources don’t see a big return value in providing data to HIEs.

• Competing Networks: The rise of nation networks like CommonWell and eHealthExchange, as well as event notification networks, can have HIE customers thinking that those networks are sufficient.

• Resource Scarcity: The hub-and-spoke nature of HIEs means that being the “dial-tone” for exchange within a region compounds their problems. Having a “many-to-many” mission with the complexities of exchange and interoperability leads to HIEs being woefully under resourced and/or underfunded.

• Leveraging Grants and Incentives: Given tight budgets and resources, it may seem that the way to advance an HIE’s capabilities is via grants and incentives.  While positive, the effects of these revenue injections can be fleeting and often offer either niche applications or unripe capabilities.

In terms of overcoming these challenges in 2022, Buff provided these insights in the article:

• HIEs must continually prove their value.

• HIEs must find force-multipliers and stop doing it on their own.

• ·HIEs must find a way to move forward, and not just stay in the same place or they will be overtaken.

The article also provides a deep-dive perspective and examples of how HIEs can meet the requirements above. The big takeaway is that there are partners and solution providers that can help HIEs meet their overall mission goals and have a prosperous 2022. Click here to read the full article.

RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.