Health Information Exchange

Health Information Exchange (HIE) helps partners transform care by bringing together communities and information across Arizona. The HIE provides secure access to patient health information as well as the secure exchange of patient health information between the HIE and its participating organizations and providers. The HIE is Arizona’s largest and only statewide health information organization (HIO) and its participants include hospitals, physicians, health plans, references labs and other healthcare organizations and provider to appropriately access and securely share a patient’s vital medical information electronically—improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care.

The HIE provides the organizational and technical infrastructure to allow authorized healthcare providers to securely share patient health information in order to better coordinate patient care. When a provider has access to all of a patient’s medical information, the care team can make better decisions about a patient’s healthcare, especially in an emergency.

People involved in your care will have access to your health information. This may include your
doctors, nurses, other healthcare providers, health plan and any organization or person who is
working on behalf of your healthcare providers and health plan. They may access your information
for treatment, care coordination, care or case management, transition of care planning and population
health services.

You may permit others to access your health information by signing an authorization form. They may only
access the health information described in the authorization form for the purposes stated on that form.
Health Current may also use your health information as required by law and as necessary to perform
services for healthcare providers, health plans and others participating with Health Current.
The Health Current Board of Directors can expand the reasons why healthcare providers and others
may access your health information in the future as long as the access is permitted by law.

Yes, anyone can “opt out” and not have any health information available from the HIE. When a provider begins to participate in the HIE, that provider must have in place a notification process about patient rights under Arizona law. The provider must provide a Notice of Health Information Practices which describes how patients can “opt out,” which is done by the patient simply completing an Opt Out Change Form.

Any patient may change his or her mind at any time. This is done by a patient going to his/her healthcare provider that provided the Notification of Health Information Practices and completing an Opt Out Change Form or Opt Back In Change Form indicating a decision to “opt out” or opt back in.

Federal and state laws, such as HIPAA, protect the confidentiality of your health information. Your
information is shared using secure transmission. Health Current has security measures in place to
prevent someone who is not authorized from having access. Each person has a username and
password, and the system records all access to your information

You have the right to:
1. Ask for a copy of your health information that is available through Health Current. Contact
your healthcare provider and you can get a copy within 30 days.

2. Request to have any information in the HIE corrected. If any information in the HIE is
incorrect, you can ask your healthcare provider to correct the information.

3. Ask for a list of people who have viewed your information through Health Current. Contact
your healthcare provider and you can get a copy within 30 days. Please let your healthcare
provider know if you think someone has viewed your information who should not have.

4. You may “opt out” of having your information available for sharing through Health Current.
To opt out, ask your healthcare provider for the Opt Out Form. After you submit the form,
your information will not be available for sharing through Health Current.
Caution: If you opt out, your health information will NOT be available to your healthcare
providers even in an emergency.

5. You may exclude some information from being shared. For example, if you see a doctor and
you do not want that information shared with others, you can prevent it. On the Opt Out
Form, fill in the name of the healthcare provider for the information that you do not want
shared with others.
Caution: If that healthcare provider works for an organization (like a hospital or a group of
physicians), all your information from that hospital or group of physicians may be blocked
from view.