Hixny and Healthy Alliance Partner to Integrate Clinical and Social Care

ALBANY, N.Y.—To continue its work toward improving population health, Hixny has partnered with Healthy  Alliance (Alliance for Better Health and its affiliates) to offer clinical providers an easy way to get help for their  patients with social needs, such as benefits navigation or food insecurity. 

Hixny, a health information network (HIN), is leveraging its patient record snapshot application, which is available in many electronic health records (EHR) systems, to make referring patients to community-based organizations a simple—and efficient—process.  

“Eighty percent of a person’s overall health is the result of social, environmental, behavioral and lifestyle  factors,” said Mark McKinney, Hixny’s CEO, echoing thoughts he shared in a recent blog post. “And until now,  medical care providers addressing the other 20 percent haven’t had an easy way to help patients reach their  fullest health potential. Now they do.” 

Clinical providers can use Hixny’s application within their EHR to make referrals to Healthy Alliance and its  network of 500+ partners for help with everything from food insecurity to utility assistance to navigating  Medicaid benefits and much more. 

"Accessing and navigating social supports in the community needs to be easy for individuals who serve  community members. Our Referral Coordination Center is staffed with regional navigators who have a working  knowledge of programs and services in the communities we support and are dedicated to making sure  members get connected quickly and thoughtfully,” said Healthy Alliance’s CEO, Erica Coletti. 

Early results confirm that clinical providers need an easy way to access a referral tool and network of social and  behavioral services that doesn’t require them to navigate yet another technology application and allows them  to focus on providing great medical care and better supporting their patients. Since Hixny launched this  capability in March, 97 percent of referrals made through the platform were to the experts at Healthy Alliance’s  Referral Coordination Center, reinforcing that this collaboration takes away the guesswork around what social  resources are available within the community and assures clinicians that referrals are being robustly monitored  and managed. 

In the next phase of the project and collaborative effort, Hixny and Healthy Alliance are looking into ways to  make the process better for clinical providers that includes bringing together data from multiple sources for  outcomes measurement and looking toward interoperability options with other technology vendors. 

“The partnership between Hixny and Healthy Alliance is bringing together technology, services and data,” said  McKinney. “It’s making the right thing for patients, the easy thing for providers to do.”

About Hixny  

Hixny is the nonprofit electronic health information network (HIN) serving residents and the healthcare community in New  York’s 28 eastern counties north of New York City. Its secure technology allows people to contribute and use health records and the data they contain in real time, which improves consumers’ knowledge of their own records; ensures that providers  have the details they need to provide high-quality care; and forms the foundation of effective population- and community level health initiatives. Hixny is a nationally recognized leader in HIE technology innovation. 

About Healthy Alliance 

Healthy Alliance (Alliance for Better Health and its affiliates) connects the underserved to a growing network of  organizations – big and small – that provide services that are essential for a healthy life. Recognizing that health begins in  our communities, Healthy Alliance’s referral network and independent practice association (IPA) convene and collaborate  with community partners — from regional hospitals to local food pantries and everyone in between — to address social  needs (food insecurity, housing assistance, transportation needs, benefits navigation, and more) before they evolve into  serious and costly medical problems. With over 580 organizations spanning 22 counties in New York State, Healthy Alliance  works to provide all communities with consistent access to the resources they need to ensure every New Yorker has the  same opportunity to be healthy.