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NDHIN officials report growth in participation, Medicaid reimbursement and services while exploring evolution to a health-data utility
Summary
The North Dakota Health Information Network (NDHIN) reported 356 participating organizations, over 5.5 million direct secure messages in 2024 and new Medicaid cost-allocation reimbursements covering 44'53% of approved expenses; NDHIN and partners are evaluating a move toward a broader health-data utility model.
Dr. Shyla Blend, Health Information Technology Director, updated the committee on the North Dakota Health Information Network (NDHIN), which NDIT houses and which connects providers, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and public-health units to share and query health information.
Why it matters: NDHIN facilitates secure exchange of clinical data (encounters, labs, radiology reports, images, immunizations and alerts) for care coordination, public health reporting and provider workflows. Its evolution toward a health-data utility model could expand analytic uses while preserving privacy safeguards.
Blend said NDHIN is supported by a Medicaid cost-allocation mechanism approved more than a year ago; that reimbursement covers roughly 44'53% of approved expenses. She reported 356 participating organizations, 5,560 active users, about 1.63 million unique patient IDs in the archive, 655 incoming data feeds and 3.8 million direct secure messages sent and received in 2024 (up from under 1 million the prior year). NDHIN also provides image viewing and access to PDMP (prescription drug monitoring) data for participating providers.
NDHIN currently supports required public-health reporting (syndromic surveillance, electronic lab/conditions reporting) and bi-directional immunization registry interactions. Blend said NDHIN helps reduce manual reporting burden on providers and enables encounter alerts to subscribed clinicians for improved care coordination.
Blend described a multi-stakeholder assessment the agency convened looking at evolving NDHIN into a broader health-data utility, which could add population-health and analytic use cases, better support social-determinants-of-health data and improve de-identified analytics. She said NDHIN planned a gap analysis and strategic plan and was discussing next priorities with hospital participants.
Ending: Committee members asked how participation is encouraged (NDHIN is voluntary and opt-in), how the private and public sectors work together on data exchange, and whether patients can directly query what data exist for them (NDHIN currently does not provide direct patient access; providers remain primary access points). NDHIN said it will continue stakeholder engagement and anticipate a future strategic plan and gap analysis to define resources and governance for a health-data utility.
