MX in the News

Technology companies like Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft keep making moves in the health sector, which isn’t surprising given that it represents a $3.5 trillion opportunity. But these companies keep hitting the same stumbling block: the inability to share health information across medical systems. Millions of patients are learning that they can’t share clinical data from their electronic medical records between…

Hidden behind the Bay Area’s blossoming data-driven health care startup arena is a rapidly enlarging pool of digital health records. In just over two years, California’s health information exchange (HIE), Manifest MedEx, has swelled to 17 million medical records, about 40 percent of people living in the state. To date, 70 hospitals and five health…

California ambulance services now can connect to the state’s health information exchange, called Manifest MedEx, thanks to a $4.9 million grant from the California Emergency Medical Services Authority. Six local EMS agencies, 13 other EMS providers and 16 hospitals will cover eight counties—representing 7.6 million residents—will be participating in the project. Connecting the ambulances will…

As first responders, emergency medical service (EMS) providers often have to make quick, life-saving decisions without any patient health information during emergencies. Using a $4.9 million state grant issued by the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), California health information exchange (HIE) Manifest MedEx is leading an initiative to facilitate better data exchange between ambulance service providers and…

A recent survey of providers in California’s Medicaid program found low participation rates in regional health information organizations (HIOs). Only 26 percent of all Medi-Cal providers and only 17 percent of ambulatory practices currently connect to an HIO. To address the situation, the state Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will provide incentive payments for…

In the past two years, Manifest MedEx (MX), now the largest nonprofit health data exchange in California, has rapidly grown after being formed as the result of a merger between San Francisco-based California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX) and the San Bernardino-based Inland Empire Health Information Exchange (IEHIE) back in 2017. With offices in Northern…

Health-care costs today are on a path to bankrupt our nation. Fast-rising costs are straining family budgets due to long-term stagnation of real income and prevailing fears regarding job security. Frustrated by a squeeze on costs and worried care won’t be there when they need it, Americans have unprecedented levels of anger with and distrust in…

On June 25th, Blue Shield of California with a coalition of 50 national provider organizations and health plans, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) advocating for increased sharing of electronic patient records among providers. The letter came in response to a CMS request for feedback on proposed rules related to the sharing of information, otherwise…