HP Will Develop Medicaid Information Exchange in Texas

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has awarded Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP with a 52-month, $30 million contract to Commission to create a statewide Medicaid health information exchange.

Under the agreement, HP will provide web-based tools, including a portal to give Medicaid providers access to recipients’ health histories via a secure electronic health information exchange network; and one on which recipients can securely access their personal health information and check program eligibility.

Providers will also have access to a web-based e-prescribing tool, allowing doctors to send electronic prescriptions directly to patients’ pharmacies. The goals of this initiative are to reduce medical errors, reduce prescription abuse, increase patient convenience and trim administrative costs. HP will also replace monthly distributed individual paper Medicaid ID cards with permanent plastic cards.

The system includes a roles-based security model that will enable the state to control access and privileges within the system, HP says. This will prevent duplication of large sets of data and enable access to the most current data available, it adds.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio