Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota supports healthcare interoperability for Medicare Advantage and Minnesota Health Care Programs (Medicaid) members.
It hasn't been easy for health care organizations, whether doctors, hospitals and clinics, health insurers, pharmacists or other organizations, to easily share and use information that can help people get the right, most affordable care. Though there have been many advances in health care technology, such as electronic health records, different systems can't seamlessly connect with each other.
The goal of achieving "interoperability" is to fix this problem. Health information systems will be enabled to work together to advance the effective delivery of health care.
For now, based on government guidance, the program is focused on supporting Medicaid (Minnesota Health Care Program) and Medicare Advantage members.
Detailed information about regulations and technical guidelines for developers.
Read the information you need to choose a third-party application to access your health plan information.
Learn about our provider directory and patient access APIs to create your application.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Interoperability and Patient Access final rule establishes policies that break down barriers in the nation’s health system to enable better patient access to their health information, improve interoperability and unleash innovation, while reducing burden on payers and providers. Read the CMS fact sheet.
As noted in Becker's Health IT, the benefits of achieving interoperability include:
In a nutshell, interoperability guidelines involve two components:
About payer-to-payer data exchange: CMS has delayed enforcement of the requirements pending further guidance. We will provide more information when it's available.