HealthPort announces participation in test phase of CMS esMD gateway services

HealthPort, an industry authority in the HIPAA-compliant transfer of protected health information and audit management technology, today announced its involvement as the largest health information handler (HIH) approved to participate in the test phase of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) electronic submission of medical documentation (esMD) gateway services for information exchange from healthcare providers.

"HealthPort is uniquely positioned to experience healthcare's electronic vision first hand by offering healthcare providers an innovative and streamlined electronic option for responding to governmental medical record requests through the esMD pilot program," said Jonathan Arkin, Vice President of Business Development, HealthPort. As a participant, HealthPort will utilize its technology for the secure electronic transmittal of medical record requests by Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) and other federal Medicare and Medicaid related audit requesters via the CMS esMD gateway, allowing providers the option to respond to documentation requests through electronic data submissions rather than by paper or CDs.

The esMD gateway is a CMS-developed delivery standard for compliance with RAC requests, which will be expanded to other government audit requests in the future and will potentially alleviate the need for facilities to burn CDs (instead of mailing paper) and reduce postage costs. "As the largest release of information services provider in the country and the largest HIH selected to participate in the esMD pilot program, this is a logical next step for us to be at the forefront of evolving release of information services into an entirely electronic process," said Arkin. "We are excited to be a key contributor in this opportunity to help providers realize financial efficiencies and ease the administrative burden for providers and requesters."