Lawmakers, state agencies and advocates debate Section 10 of S.126 to create unified health data space

Section 10 of Senate Bill 126 would add a new section to Title 18 directing the Agency of Human Services to collaborate with the Health Information Exchange Steering Committee to develop an integrated system of clinical and claims data intended to improve patient, provider and payer access to information and reduce administrative burdens.

The provision would require insurers, under a broad statutory definition, to provide clinical and claims data to the Agency of Human Services as directed by the agency, and would require AHS to provide an annual update on progress to the relevant legislative committees on or before Jan. 15 each year.

The discussion on April 23 centered on trade-offs between potential benefits — better population health analytics, fewer duplicate tests and improved care coordination — and the technical, legal and cost challenges of linking multiple datasets while protecting patient privacy.

Will Dempsey, Health Data Officer for the Vermont Agency of Human Services, told the committee that AHS is building on existing work and expects the Medicaid Data Warehouse and Analytics Solution (MDWAS) to go live by the end of the calendar year. He said the MDWAS will link Medicaid clinical and claims data for Medicaid members and called patient privacy “our first and foremost priority.”

Dempsey said AHS supports involvement of the Health…