Overview:
In February 2017, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health & Human Services (EOHHS), promulgated 101 CMR 20.00: Health Information Exchange, also known as the Mass HIway Regulations.
The regulations codify the HIway Connection Requirement, which requires certain healthcare organizations to connect to and use the Health Information Exchange (HIE) called the Mass HIway. These organizations must implement increasingly rigorous
clinical use cases by sending/receiving HIway Direct messages over a four-year cycle or be subject to a monetary penalty.
Timeline:
The table below shows the year by which Provider Organizations must connect to the Mass HIway.
How provider organizations must fulfill the HIway Connection Requirement is phased in over 4 years:
- The connection requirement gets progressively stricter in each year of implementation
- Organizations that don’t meet the requirement may be subject to penalties starting in Year 4
- The 4-year phase-in period is based on when organizations must be connected.
The 4-year phase-in approach progressively encourages providers to use the Mass HIway for Provider-to-Provider Communications via bi-directional exchange of health information.
Resources for additional information.
