The Organized Health Care Arrangement (OHCA) was created to support the exchange of longitudinal patient records and related information. It is a foundational activity, necessary to integrate Travis County’s safety net health care delivery system.
What is an OHCA?
An OHCA is an organized system of health care in which more than one HIPAA covered entity participates, and in which the participating covered entities hold themselves out to the public as participating in a joint arrangement.
Why do an OHCA?
• Participate in joint activities, such as utilization review, quality assurance and improvement activities, and (not sure if you want to include this or not) financial risk.
• Simplify the “spider web” of individual agreements between CCC IDS participants; and
How does the OHCA work?
• The OHCA is memorialized in a two-document contractual arrangement: a participation agreement and a policies & procedures manual.
• The OHCA’s Participation Agreement requires a majority of participants to ratify amendments to the Agreement.
• The Policies & Procedures includes specific data-set and data elements.
• These may be amended by the CCC without approval of the participants.
• There are limits:
• The information has to be reasonably requested by the CCC; and
• The participant must make best efforts to provide it.
In order to build and operate as an Integrated Delivery System (IDS), it is essential that providers across the continuum of the health care safety net exchange protected health information (PHI) data—both with the CCC and with each other.
