HAC Health Information Exchange & Interoperability 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which FHIR resource type is most commonly used to represent a patient's problem list in an HIE context?
- Observation
- Condition (Correct answer)
- DiagnosticReport
- Procedure
Correct answer: Condition
The FHIR Condition resource is used to represent problems, diagnoses, and health concerns that make up a patient's problem list.
Question 2: A Qualified Entity (QE) in the context of US health information exchange primarily refers to:
- A certified EHR vendor
- An organization authorized to receive Medicare claims data for quality improvement (Correct answer)
- A state-designated HIE network
- A HIPAA-covered entity with data sharing agreements
Correct answer: An organization authorized to receive Medicare claims data for quality improvement
Qualified Entities are organizations approved by CMS to receive Medicare and Medicaid claims data for the purpose of evaluating provider performance.
Question 3: What is the primary function of a Master Patient Index (MPI) in an HIE?
- Encrypting patient records during transmission
- Matching and linking patient records across disparate systems (Correct answer)
- Storing clinical documents in a central repository
- Auditing user access to patient data
Correct answer: Matching and linking patient records across disparate systems
An MPI identifies and links patient records from multiple sources using demographic and other identifiers to create a unified patient identity.
Question 4: Which interoperability standard is specifically designed for exchanging clinical documents such as discharge summaries and referral notes?
- HL7 v2 ADT
- FHIR R4
- HL7 CDA (Clinical Document Architecture) (Correct answer)
- DICOM
Correct answer: HL7 CDA (Clinical Document Architecture)
HL7 CDA is an XML-based standard specifically designed to define the structure and semantics of clinical documents for exchange.
Question 5: In the context of HIE, what does 'directed exchange' mean?
- Routing data only to providers within the same health system
- Sending encrypted health information directly to a known recipient (Correct answer)
- Querying a central repository for a specific patient's records
- Broadcasting patient data to all subscribed network participants
Correct answer: Sending encrypted health information directly to a known recipient
Directed exchange involves sending secure health information directly from one provider to another known recipient, similar to encrypted email.
Question 6: What is a key challenge of 'information blocking' as defined under the 21st Century Cures Act?
- Delays in adopting new EHR software
- Practices that interfere with the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (Correct answer)
- Network latency causing slow data transmission
- Insufficient storage capacity for large imaging files
Correct answer: Practices that interfere with the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information
The 21st Century Cures Act defines information blocking as practices that unreasonably interfere with EHI access, exchange, or use, with significant penalties for violations.
Question 7: Which framework defines eight interoperability levels from foundational to organizational in health IT?
- HIMSS Interoperability Model (Correct answer)
- ONC Interoperability Roadmap
- HL7 Capability Framework
- HITRUST CSF
Correct answer: HIMSS Interoperability Model
The HIMSS Interoperability Model defines a continuum from foundational (Level 1) through structural, semantic, and organizational interoperability (Level 7) used widely in health IT.
HAC Health Information Exchange & Interoperability 2
Which FHIR resource type is most commonly used to represent a patient's problem list in an HIE context?