Community Information Exchange (CIE) capacities enable organizations using different technologies to share information while providing social care to people in need. CIE can also facilitate the aggregation of data about community resources, and communities’ needs, and to inform policy change that promotes more equitable and effective distribution of resources and programming. The Michigan Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Strategy, entitled “Michigan’s Roadmap to Healthy Communities,” includes CIE as an essential structural intervention for advancing health equity.
In the “Bridge to Better Health” report, the Michigan Health Information Technology Commission (MHITC) also highlights that the statewide development of CIE is a prioritized to support the establishment of social care data standards. To inform the implementation of statewide CIE, MDHHS convened a Community Information Exchange Task Force in August 2022. The Task Force met through July of 2023, bringing together representatives of community-based organizations (CBOs), health care organizations, health payers, health IT, and governmental entities to understand the existing infrastructure of CIE activities in Michigan, analyze the needs of various partners, assess the capacities of CIE that are needed in the field, and make recommendations for actions that the state government and other actors can take to support the information ecosystem of health, human and social service providers in Michigan.
The CIE Task Force has issued a set of recommendations with strong consensus alongside a high-level roadmap for implementation. These recommendations include:
- Establish core technical capacities necessary to enable interoperability at a statewide scale – including standards for data exchange and identity management services.
- Establish a reliable supply of resource directory information to be provisioned as a public good.
- Establish a statewide framework for legal agreements that aligns with existing regulatory frameworks while addressing data collection in contexts that are not otherwise regulated; and establish an ethical framework in the form of a “Bill of Rights” for consumers and communities.
- Ensure that aggregation of longitudinal data about people and populations can occur with the informed consent of data subjects.
- Designate and support ‘coordinating entities’ in the process of facilitating activity among CBOs, government agencies, and healthcare institutions – and ensure that these entities uphold fiduciary responsibilities for the people and organizations that they serve.
- Establish federated systems of governance through which standards and policies are set statewide, while priorities and implementations can be decided and evaluated locally.
- Leverage a variety of financing mechanisms to build and sustain these capacities, including the capacity to provide more social services.
While there is broad consensus across healthcare, payors, government, and communities on the need for better data and information sharing to adequately address social drivers of health, in the absence of federal guidance and dedicated funding for states to promote CIE it is critical that Michiganders coalesce around core values and principles to promote equitable, effective, and interoperable social care data exchange. This report establishes a roadmap for Michigan to develop state-wide CIE infrastructure driven by the goal of health equity.
You can find the CIE Task Force Final Report here. Here is a recording of the CIE Task Force Final Report Webinar, where MDHHS staff and CIE Task Force members walk through the final report and recommendations. If you have any questions or thoughts, please reach out to MDHHS-SDOH-PolicyandPlanning@michigan.gov
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