Massachusetts requires acute hospitals to submit ADTs to certified ENS vendors; subscription costs remain a barrier

Angela Miller, interoperability and HIE project director at the Mass HIway, said Massachusetts took a different path by building an interconnected ENS framework and certifying vendors to ensure providers can subscribe to a single vendor and still receive ADTs from any hospital in the state. She emphasized that Mass HIway is not a clinical data repository and that provider organizations control what is shared.

“We are not a clinical data repository unlike some of the other state HIEs,” Miller said, describing a certification program with business, functional and security requirements; PointClickCare and Bamboo Health are the two certified ENS vendors she named. Miller said acute hospitals must send ADTs to at least one certified vendor, vendors must reflect ADTs to each other, and Mass HIway requires quarterly reporting on client lists and ADT submitter fill rates to monitor quality. She noted subscription cost is a barrier for some smaller providers, while accountable care organizations and larger groups often subscribe so smaller practices can receive notifications through the ACO’s subscription.

Miller described oversight practices—annual data‑quality checks, standing vendor meetings, and procedures for handling reflection churn—and urged inclusion of clinical fields such as chief complaint and diagnosis in ADT feeds to improve triage for follow‑up care.