UPMC Health Information Exchange Participation

What is a Health Information Change?

Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) allow participating health care providers to share health information electronically for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. These exchanges permit providers to view health information from different health care organizations to assist in the coordination of your care. HIE’s help share information between systems and providers that would otherwise require patients to request records be sent from provider to provider. 

What does this mean for me?

UPMC participates in multiple regional and national HIES. To the extent permitted by law, UPMC may share your health information with other healthcare providers and organizations that participate in HIEs. Recipients of this information are still required to abide by HIPAA, protect your confidentiality, and use the information for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations.

UPMC Health Information Exchange Participation 

UPMC participates in the following HIEs:

• Epic Care Everywhere/Nexus
• Carequality
• Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP)
• Clinical Connect HIE
• Commonwell Health Alliance
• eHealth Exchange
• HEALTHeLINK
• KeyHIE
• Pennsylvania Patient Provider Network (P3N)

How do I opt out of this sharing?

Patients who wish to opt out of HEALTHeLINK and CRISP HIEs, must contact either organization directly.

Patients may choose to opt out, of the following Health Information Exchanges in which UPMC participates:

• Epic Care Everywhere/Nexus
• Carequality
• Commonwell Health Alliance
• Clinical Connect HIE
• KeyHIE

If you choose to no longer participate in these exchanges, you can opt out by completing a UPMC opt-out form (PDF) and providing it directly to your provider or emailing it to PrivacyAskUs@upmc.edu. Electronic requests may take up to 30 days to process, and you will be notified at the time of completion. 

Opting out does not:

• Opt you out of exchanges from non-UPMC providers or exchanges in which UPMC does not participate
• Affect information that was exchanged prior to the time you chose to participate in the HIE
• Preclude you from opting back in to an HIE in the future
• Revoke written authorizations to share information with providers or health plans
• Exclude UPMC from sharing your health information for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations directly with your provider(s) or health plans via other methods such as mail or other electronic means.