ELKRIDGE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) has selected Onyx Technology’s SAFHIR platform to share Medicaid claims data with beneficiaries through an interoperable, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) based API. CRISP’s selection of SAFHIR satisfies requirements included in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Patient Access Mandate, which has a July 1, 2021 deadline for compliance.
As the designated health information exchange (HIE) in Maryland, CRISP’s decision to leverage the SAFHIR API solution helps make one of its primary customers, the Maryland Department of Health (MDH), compliant with the CMS mandate. This is accomplished without MDH implementing any new technology within its existing health data infrastructure.
SAFHIR fits seamlessly into CRISP’s existing data infrastructure, converting already incoming Medicaid paid claims data into an interoperable FHIR format. SAFHIR allows CRISP and MDH to make that data available to consumers, while also controlling access and data sharing. SAFHIR supports identity federation and uses the SMART on FHIR authorization scheme to control user access.
As a result, any approved third-party application will be able to access MDH’s Medicaid data through the SAFHIR solution, securely and with the necessary permissions. This ability fully satisfies the CARIN Blue Button 2.0 requirements outlined within the CMS mandate.
“CRISP strives to provide our users with relevant and timely data that can be used to improve patients’ overall health,” said Craig Behm, CRISP executive director of Maryland. “The CMS mandate presents us with both a challenge and opportunity to improve our data sharing efforts in a way that benefits everyone across the healthcare spectrum in Maryland.”
“By leveraging SAFHIR, CRISP proactively solved a major hurdle for the Maryland Department of Health, one that HIEs and states across the country currently face,” said Aaron Seib, Onyx’s chief strategy officer. “The SAFHIR platform seamlessly fits within CRISP’s technology stack, reusing CRISP’s existing FHIR server to reduce the challenge, cost, and time associated with meeting the CMS mandate. Once again, CRISP has stepped up for Maryland, proactively addressing federal requirements on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries.”
SAFHIR is a FHIR-based health data interoperability platform that lets providers and payers dramatically expand the ability to share data within their organization, with partners, and most importantly, with patients.
Onyx created SAFHIR based in part on its prior work creating the Blue Button 2.0 API on behalf of CMS. Blue Button 2.0 provides health information access to more than 60 million Medicare beneficiaries. The company used the lessons learned from that nationwide implementation to benefit healthcare organizations, payers, and HIEs to improve data interoperability and sharing.
About Onyx Technology LLC
Onyx Technology, LLC is a healthcare interoperability solutions provider. Onyx, a NewWave company, emerged from work with CMS in establishing the nation’s first nationwide FHIR-based API, Blue Button 2.0. Building on this experience and expertise, Onyx has partnered with Microsoft to build the industry’s leading platform for FHIR-based interoperable exchange. Focused on standards-based, interoperable technologies that ensure security, privacy, and the delivery of the right information to the right place at the right time, Onyx is the expert in enabling our customers to garner the greatest value from their participation in the healthcare eco-system of tomorrow. For more information, please visit www.onyxhealth.io.
About CRISP
CRISP is a regional health information exchange (HIE) serving Maryland, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and the surrounding regions. A non-profit organization advised by a wide range of stakeholders who are responsible for healthcare throughout the region, CRISP has been formally designated as Maryland's statewide health information exchange by the Maryland Health Care Commission. Health information exchange allows clinical information to move electronically among disparate health information systems. For more information about CRISP, visit www.crisphealth.org.
