New Jersey Innovation Institute recently announced that the New Jersey Department of Human Services Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services and New Jersey Health Information Network have been granted Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicaid Enterprise System certification.
A longstanding facilitator of many statewide health care initiatives, NJDHS has been a key partner with NJHIN in driving interoperability across New Jersey and ensuring healthy outcomes for more than 2.2 million Medicaid beneficiaries.
NJHIN is the State Designated Entity to advance interoperable health information technology services to support health information exchange, and is the only network that facilitates the electronic exchange of protected health information across the entire state of New Jersey.
This new certification is a testament to the longstanding vision and goals shared by NJDHS and NJHIN and will allow the organizations to continue their crucial roles in connecting patients and providers to critical health care data, enabling substance use disorder and long-term care facilities, and supporting New Jersey’s underserved populations through a variety of public health initiatives.
“This is a huge accomplishment for our teams and helps to further validate the importance of our work in the state of New Jersey and in the U.S.,” Jennifer D’Angelo, NJII Healthcare Division senior vice president and general manager, said. “It is an important milestone on the journey to achieving our mission of revolutionizing the health care industry and creating a healthier, more connected population. New Jersey now counts itself among states who have received MES Outcomes Based Certification for Health Information Exchanges, and we’re proud that New Jersey joins the ranks of these states leading the charge in better serving vulnerable groups.”
D’Angelo and her team achieved the certification following a rigorous two-year process. It qualifies NJII the potential to receive Medicaid cost-allocated federal matching dollars to continue funding for the Health Information Network and ensure that services and operations continue. This achievement closely follows the recent HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year certification for NJII’s key implemented systems. The HITRUST status is an elite security credential that denotes adherence to regulatory and data-sharing mandates and best practices.
The NJHIN, developed and managed by NJII’s Healthcare Division on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Health and in partnership with NJDHS, enables the electronic exchange of patient health information among trusted data sources across the state of New Jersey. This includes providing services such as a Master Person Index; Admission, Discharge and Transfer alerts; Active Care Relationship Service; and Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture, all of which better equip providers to enable safer, more effective care to New Jersey citizens, including Medicare beneficiaries and vulnerable populations.
Currently, all New Jersey hospitals, long-term care, assisted living and Federally Qualified Health Centers are connected and contributing to NJHIN. The organization has enrolled more than 36,000 providers to date, and securely houses and manages more than 14 million patient records in its Master Patient Index.
