HITEQ Health Center Behavioral Health Integrator Badge

Health centers are increasing the integration of behavioral health in primary care, spurred by an increased focus on whole person care and additional funding. Effective use of health IT in conjunction with patient privacy and confidentiality is imperative to support behavioral health.

According to the Office of the National Coordinator, "Health information technology can help to improve behavioral health care and can further enable care coordination and integration, increase information sharing, and support prevention, treatment, and recovery activities. Access to and the exchange and use of behavioral health information as part of routine care can help to improve continuity in care services and support efforts toward achieving an interoperable health care system across the continuum."

Take some time to read through some of the articles on this page and then fill out the submission form on the right and you will be rewarded with a Health Center Incredible Behavioral Health Integrator badge! This is an official badge that is submitted by the HITEQ Center as a proof of completion to the blockchain. Your credentials can be added to profiles such as LinkedIn and verified through accreditation services such as Accredible and Open Badge.

https://hiteqcenter.org/Services/Badges-Self-paced-Learning/Behavioral-Health-Integrator

Promising Practices in Virtual Integrated Behavioral Health Care

Lessons from Community Health Centers during COVID-19; February 2021

HITEQ Center / Friday, February 26, 2021 0 10839

With the rapid shift to telehealth services propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, many community health centers had to rapidly transition to a mechanism of care delivery previously unknown and unfamiliar. Within a matter of days and weeks, health centers creatively found ways to transform workflows and approaches to care delivery to continue to provide care even if the patient was physically distant. This resource highlights promising practices in virtual integrated behavioral health care identified from community health centers.

HITEQ Highlights: Deploying Smartphone Apps to Advance Mental Health in Primary Care

HITEQ Highlights Webinar

Jodie Albert / 11/3/2022 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM 0 5010

Patient engagement through electronic health apps are one solution to the need for timely and ongoing patient support. Join us to discuss a program to support mental health through an integrated behavioral health model using a mental health app at Cambridge Health Alliance. The session discussed how apps can address gaps in mental health care, the lessons learned in effective implementation of use of a mental health app in a safety-net clinic, and provide a rubric for evaluating health apps for your patients and use in your mental health service.

HITEQ Highlights: HIV Prevention and Treatment for patients with SUD in an Integrated Behavioral Health Setting

Alyssa Carlisle / 4/23/2020 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM 0 14807

Join the HITEQ Center, in collaboration with the National Council for Behavioral Health, for a webinar on understanding from a beginner perspective, how to integrate HIV prevention, screening into integrated behavioral health services, including how to identify patients at risk for HIV with a focus on SUD, facilitate screening, and prompting for rescreening at appropriate intervals.

HITEQ Highlights: Documentation Tips when using the Collaborative Care Model for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety in Primary Care

Alyssa Carlisle / 1/30/2020 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM 0 19304

Join the HITEQ Center, in collaboration with the National Council for Behavioral Health, for a webinar on Documentation Tips when using the Collaborative Care Model for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety in Primary Care. The webinar provided a brief overview and benefits of the collaborative care model as well as information specific to each of the main staff roles. The role-specific nuances of documentation were highlighted, including considerations for tracking data such as clinical activities accomplished with each patient during the month.

HITEQ Highlights: Enhancing the EHR for Suicide Prevention

Alyssa Carlisle / 11/21/2019 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM 0 16044

This webinar is the second in a series highlighting the intersection between health information technology and behavioral health services. The webinar explored key components to be built into an electronic health record in order to better address suicide prevention in health care. Decision support considerations, documentation and communication enhancements, as well as population health management strategies were discussed.

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Health Center Guidelines for Implementing FHIR and the Information Blocking Rule

Molly Rafferty / Wednesday, September 6, 2023

/ Categories: EHR Selection and Implementation, EHR Implementation, Health Information Exchange, Relevance of HIE, Description of HIE, Implementation of HIE, Information Blocking, Promoting Interoperability, Privacy and Security, Privacy & Security Best Practices, HIPAA

Health Center Guidelines for Implementing FHIR and the Information Blocking Rule

HITEQ Center, September 2023

The 21^st Century Cures Act and the ONC Health IT Certification Program include rules for technical configuration and use of Health Level 7® (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR) for health data exchange and accessibility. Health centers are directed to enable and publish their healthcare data locations, known as FHIR endpoints,* to and from their electronic health record (EHR). Part of the Cures Act, known as the Information Blocking Rule, mandates that patients have “easy” access to their digital medical information, costs and claims associated with their health record, and whom the data can be shared with. FHIR is a standard information protocol that is widely used in the health IT community to meet Cures Act compliance.

*An endpoint describes the technical details of a location that can be connected to for the delivery/retrieval of information. For a list of resources that are typically used to identify where to locate endpoint details, visit https://build.fhir.org/endpoint.html.

FHIR interface specifications define how health data is exchanged for interoperability, retrieval, use, and transmission. Getting Started with FHIR outlines these specifications and contains information on the following:

How will information be exchanged? (see Foundation Module)

How will the data be secured? (see Security and Privacy Module)

When and what data is exchanged? (see Workflow Module)

How does the data conform to the FHIR specification and Implementation Guides? (see Conformance Module)

The following sections provide guidance to health centers for implementing FHIR in compliance with the Information Blocking Rule.

Administrative Practices

Review the Cures Act rule: API Conditions and Maintenance of Certification requirements to ensure that FHIR endpoints and Application Programming Interfaces (API) are properly registered and accessible for use. These requirements provide details for FHIR endpoints, or “service base URLs” to be published.
Establish appropriate data exchange and network transmission agreements, such as business associate agreements and Data Use Agreements (DUA), and incorporate them into local health center HIPAA policy and procedures. Health centers should document and inventory “actors'' such as systems, users, software, and data requests to align appropriate security configurations on networks. For further guidance on implementing agreements, see NIST 800-66 special publication and CMS HIPAA and Administrative Simplification.

FHIR API Practices

Test, review, analyze, and continually monitor third-party FHIR Apps and APIs through integrated information security controls.
Review the CMS article: Best Practices for Payers and App Developers to learn about resources and how to establish and maintain a secure, FHIR-based healthcare API.

Cybersecurity Management

Implement information security best practices, user access agreements, regular monitoring of systems' software, and apply recommended configurations and patches.
Engage the use of subject matter experts and cybersecurity resources available through the HITEQ center.

Practices for Securing FHIR endpoints

Utilize a threat management system for mobile apps and FHIR API endpoints.
Ensure API authentication keys are secured using valid certificate key exchange, Transport Layer Security (TLS), and certificate pinning.
Use standard authentication and access controls to ensure users and systems are authorized.
Review the API security checklists that are available via the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) GraphQL - OWASP Cheat Sheet Series.
Validate hosts, ensure proper web and software security configurations within the platform or FHIR “framework,” implement web application firewalls (WAFs), and access audit logs and monitoring.

Resources

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Tags: HIPAA data exchange Compliance security implementation security measures information blocking information exchange FHIR Implementation FHIR information blocking rule information blocking badge

Behavioral Health Integrator