Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange?

The Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX) is a new Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) facilitating health information exchange. BHIX will help authorized health care providers and other Participants throughout the region to better serve patients by sharing key medical information quickly and accurately. Participants include hospitals (emergency rooms, inpatient and outpatient settings), home care agencies, nursing homes and payers.

Who runs BHIX?

In July 2007, an independent, not-for-profit corporation was created to oversee the day-to-day operations of BHIX. The BHIX governance structure promotes collaboration among a variety of participants, including representatives of the Brooklyn community.

How will BHIX help?

BHIX will improve patient care and in a medical emergency, BHIX can help save lives by offering providers immediate access to crucial patient information. Your doctors will be able to make more informed decisions about your care and treatment with accurate, up to date information. BHIX reduces the need to provide redundant data to providers during your visits. Additionally, using BHIX helps reduce the risk of adverse drug reactions and errors and duplicate testing. By allowing providers to work more efficiently, BHIX can help moderate the growing cost of health care.

Who will be able to access my personal health information?

Every patient will choose whether or not to give consent for a BHIX Participant (e.g. hospital, nursing home, home care agency) to access his/her health information. Currently, you may give consent to a number of BHIX Participants. To learn if the place where you receive care is a part of BHIX, please see our list of Participants. In order to give a BHIX Participant routine access to your health information, please fill out a Patient Consent Form indicating you “Give Consent.”

What personal health information will authorized Participants be able to see?

Health information in BHIX comes from a growing number of Health Information Sources. Initially, shared data will include: patient demographic information; advance directive information; physician/primary contact information; allergies; medications; problem lists and diagnoses. Over time, BHIX will add patient information such as laboratory results, radiology images, discharge/transitional care summaries. BHIX will also build connections to receive data from other Health Information Sources, such as doctors’ offices, pharmacies, laboratories, the NYS Medicaid program, and Personal Health Records.

Why does the Patient Consent Form include access to all types of sensitive data, such as mental health and HIV information?

Your consent allows BHIX Participants to access sensitive health information in order to allow them to best assess your overall medical condition.

The Patient Consent Form states that a Participant may use BHIX to improve the quality of medical care it delivers. What does this mean?

Quality assessment and improvement programs are among the operations undertaken by health care providers whereby they seek to study ways to improve the type of care they render.

What if I don’t want my medical information available through BHIX?

Patients can choose not to have their information shared electronically. If a patient denies consent for his/her Participant to access his/her health information via BHIX by indicating that you Deny Consent on the Patient Consent Form, this Participant will not be able to see the patient’s data – even if an emergency.

What if I want to exclude certain medical information?

BHIX is not set up to exclude specific visits from the health information exchange. If you want to prevent a Participant from knowing about a specific medical event you may want to consider denying the Participant access to BHIX.

What if I want to change my mind?

If you change your mind and would like to withdraw consent from a BHIX Participant to routinely access your health information through BHIX, you may complete a Withdrawal of Consent Form at any time. Conversely, if you have previously denied consent to a Participant and would now like to change your mind, you may sign a new Patient Consent Form and give consent to the BHIX Participant at any time.

I noticed that some BHIX Participants are Participating Payers. Why would I want to give consent to a payer to access my health information through BHIX?

In the future, BHIX will enable you to give consent to a Payer Participant in order to assist the payer to perform disease management services. Disease management is a system of coordinated health care communication and recommendations to help patients care for themselves. BHIX policies strictly prohibit payers from using information in BHIX for underwriting purposes or to deny you insurance coverage.

Will denial to participate in BHIX affect my insurance coverage?

No. It is important to note that denying consent to participate in BHIX will not change the care you receive from your provider and your insurance coverage will not be affected.

Who’s protecting the privacy of health information shared via BHIX?

The BHIX Privacy and Consumer Communications Committee, comprised of the privacy officers and attorneys from the BHIX Participants, has helped BHIX develop policies to ensure that the BHIX electronic exchange conforms to laws and safeguards that protect patient privacy.

Should I be concerned about security of the health information exchange?

No. BHIX does not create a centralized database of patient information, just a secure way to exchange information electronically. BHIX employs password protection, the ability to track every viewer and other safeguards protect against unauthorized use of the exchange.

When will BHIX start the electronic information exchange?

BHIX is planning a phased roll-out. Participants will start accepting patient consent forms in about April 2008. It is anticipated that authorized Participants will have data viewing capacity via BHIX in October 2008.

What if I still have questions?

You can Contact Us.