Orion Health Awards Cognosante Contract for Phase One of Massachusetts Statewide Health Information Exchange

MCLEAN, VA--(Marketwire - Sep 28, 2012) - Cognosante, a leading provider of IT services for healthcare organizations, announced it was awarded a contract from Orion Health™ to provide integration and identity management for the first phase of the Massachusetts Statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) program. Cognosante will lead the configuration, integration, and testing of the HIE's security infrastructure to support the first phase of the Massachusetts HIE program. In addition, Cognosante will lead the identity integration into the healthcare provider portal, develop requirements documentation and security standards.

"Orion Health selected Cognosante for its expertise in successfully delivering healthcare technology solutions at the state level," said Paul Viskovich, president, Orion Health North America. "We are focused on delivering an HIE for Massachusetts that creates a patient-centric and connected healthcare ecosystem. Cognosante's integration work with Orion Health will play an important role in engaging providers with the HIE."

"Cognosante is excited to work with Orion Health in Massachusetts on the nation's first Medicaid-funded statewide health information exchange," stated John Calabro, Cognosante's HIE Practice Director. "Our deep expertise in health information exchange, Medicaid and security will help advance Massachusetts forward toward its vision of a totally connected physician and patient community tied together by a secure and robust identity management system."

In August, the Obama Administration approved $16.9 million for the first phase of the Massachusetts HIE program, scheduled to go live later this year, which will allow providers, hospitals and others involved in patient care to exchange clinical data via a secure statewide network. Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to receive federal funding participation approval through CMS to create a Health Information Exchange. The funding will complement additional efforts underway to support Health Information Technology advances in the Commonwealth.

"This [Massachusetts HIE] exchange will serve as a statewide health care information highway, that will connect every payer, provider, and patient to a single technology backbone," said Massachusetts secretary of health and human services JudyAnn Bigby in a recent announcement. "This will create the infrastructure providers and hospitals need to move towards a more integrated, global model of care."

About Cognosante
Cognosante is a leading provider of IT services to healthcare organizations. The company has more than 25 years of experience working with 47 states to assist its clients in developing, managing and executing complex healthcare information programs and infrastructures. Its expertise includes standards development, interoperability, business and technical architecture, modular system integration, health informatics, Medicaid, health information exchange, improper payment, health insurance exchange, NwHIN, and The Direct Project. Please visit www.cognosante.com for more information.

About Orion Health, Inc.
Orion Health is New Zealand's largest privately owned software exporter and a global leader in eHealth technology. Founded in 1993, by CEO Ian McCrae, Orion Health has grown from a specialist health integration vendor into a company that sells a comprehensive suite of eHealth solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments.

With an inherent ability to interconnect the wide variety of information systems found in health, Orion Health has risen to be considered a global leader in its industry. Today, our products and solutions are currently implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate the care for tens of millions of patients.