The QSSI Health IT Council was established in 2009 as a guiding body for QSSI’s extensive healthcare business and its anticipated future growth. The council members are all practicing physicians that additionally bring significant experience in Health Information Technology (HIT) Politics, Health Information Exchange (HIE) management, Hospital Administration, as well as Emergency Medicine. The QSSI Health IT Council plays an active part in supporting QSSI’s current HIT offerings at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as defining new offerings that fulfill the requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Read more about the QSSI Health IT Council.

Firmly focused on the technology challenges facing our clients, our engagements range from developing and operating the most ambitious identity management system in the Federal Government, providing business intelligence and data warehousing for all Medicare data, conducting independent testing for all Medicare Part A and B systems as well as the Medicare Beneficiary Database, to offering a securely hosted Personal Health Record (PHR) pilot system to Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries in the state of South Carolina.

To address the opportunities and challenges created by the HITECH Act, QSSI has launched several initiatives. Specifically:

QSSI is currently supporting CMS in creating a solution to enable Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) Review contractors and healthcare providers to exchange electronic medical documentation securely via the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) CONNECT-compatible gateways. We have adopted a 2-phase approach to exchange electronic medical documentation using the NwHIN CONNECT between Medicare FFS Review contractors and healthcare providers. In Phase 1, Medicare Review contractors will continue to send paper requests to providers, and participating providers will then electronically submit supporting medical documentation via NwHIN. In Phase 2, both the request from the medicare review contractors and responses from the providers will be electronic using the NwHIN.

QSSI helped launch the Center's for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) PHR pilot project, My Personal Health Record, South Carolina (MyPHRSC). It provides a secure, web-based electronic Personal Health Record (PHR) to fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries in South Carolina. The goal of the Medicare PHR Pilot project is to provide FFS beneficiaries with free access to a Commercial, Off-The-Shelf (COTS) electronic Personal Health Record (PHR) and develop strategies to encourage uptake and utilization of the PHR.

The project, launched in April, 2008, provides access to a safe and secure electronic Personal Health Record for approximately 600,000 eligible Medicare recipients. In September 2008, CMS and DoD signed an interagency agreement to expand the scope of MyPHRSC to include DoD TRICARE for Life data. Under this expansion, an eligible beneficiary may authorize the DoD to provide TRICARE for Life data from the DoD systems directly to their existing MyPHRSC record. All Personal Health Information (PHI) complies with HHS, CMS, DoD and FISMA guidelines.

MyPHRSC is built using several middleware components and is based on the CMS 3-tier technical reference architecture. A number of software and hardware components have been installed and integrated together with appropriate security controls in place to ensure the privacy and security of PHI that is made available to registered beneficiaries. QSSI is responsible for the operational support of the PHR and regularly coordinates with the data center contractor to ensure high availability of the system. This PHR project requires complex inter-application interaction across multiple contractors and system boundaries and QSSI works closely with its subcontractors to securely extract claims data for beneficiaries. QSSI has developed a security architecture design to ensure that all PHI is protected from unauthorized access, disclosure, duplication, modification, diversion, destruction, loss, misuse, or theft by employing risk-based and business-driven security safeguards, with implementation achieved through a multi-layered security structure. Continuity of operations (COOP) is critical to this program and is achieved by using a data center with multiple levels of redundancy for hardware, software and trained personnel.

Additionally, QSSI is responsible for the development and implementation of a highly customized education and outreach program, including a staffed help desk to assist registered users via a toll free number and email. The outreach component incorporates targeted messaging, expert technical support, online, radio, print media and local advertising, and planning of and participation in workshops, presentations, and related events. For more information, go to www.myphrsc.com

HealthIT+^®, a business division of QSSI, has been selected as one of seven companies to participate in a gateway pilot program to give providers a new secure and efficient mechanism for submitting medical documentation.
A Health Information Handler (HIH) is any company that handles health information on behalf of a provider. Examples include: Health Information Exchange (HIE); Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO); Release of Information (ROI) Vendor; Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendor; and claims clearinghouse.