Unite Us and Nebraska Health Information Initiative Expand Partnership to Bring Coordinated Care to Six Additional States

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite Us, the technology company building coordinated care networks nationwide, announced today that it is expanding its partnership with Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NEHII), a Health Information Exchange (HIE), to six additional states including Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, and Minnesota. This growing partnership aims to break down existing obstacles between clinical and social service providers to allow for comprehensive, whole-person care with trackable outcomes and data.

Beyond the clinical care a person receives, 80% of an individual's health and quality of life is affected by their social determinants of health (SDoH), conditions in the environment where people are born, live, work, play, and worship.* It is critical that health care providers have access to this full picture of their patients' lives beyond the clinic and hospital walls, in order to identify and help eliminate potential barriers to their health and well-being.

NEHII is committed to helping organizations addressing SDoH improve their workflows, track results and metrics, avoid wasteful and repeated care, and create sustainable long-term models for care. NEHII will utilize Unite Us' person-centric platform to provide transparency, accountability, and outcomes data to providers, and to incorporate community-based social care into state ecosystems, particularly in rural areas with geographic variations in access to critical services. This expansion and continued partnership paves the way for additional collaborations with other HIEs, multiple health systems and state Medicaid departments as they collectively move towards systems change.

"NEHII is thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Unite Us into six new states, to enable better support and health outcomes for all Americans," says Jaime Bland, President and CEO of NEHII. "We know patients don't seek care in a single institution, let alone a single state, especially along our borders. Statewide infrastructures for health and social care are more crucial than ever as COVID-19 continues to devastate the nation. We're eager to help additional states combine their clinical and social care data in one secure location to provide patients and providers a more comprehensive view of their longitudinal health record."

"Our ultimate goal is to help all Americans lead healthier lives, and this extended partnership with NEHII enables providers to better address whole-person needs, including nonmedical issues and social determinants of health," says Taylor Justice, President of Unite Us. "We continue to lead on bringing social care to the same level of priority as traditional health care, at a time when it has never been more important to build this infrastructure. While much of the national response to COVID-19 so far has been in the clinical realm, our social support systems are seeing an unprecedented strain due to high demand."

This expansion between Unite Us and NEHII comes on the heels of Unite Nebraska, the pair's first joint statewide network that was announced in June 2020 and launched last month, and will allow more people in need across the country to get the services they need. Unite Us and NEHII have begun rolling out the partnership into the additional states, and all networks will be live by August 2022.

About Unite Us:
Unite Us is a technology company that builds coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. With Unite Us, providers across sectors can send and receive secure electronic referrals, track every person's total health journey, and report on tangible outcomes across a full range of services in a centralized, cohesive, and collaborative ecosystem. Unite Us' dedicated team builds authentic, lasting partnerships with local organizations to ensure their networks have a solid foundation, launch successfully, and continue to grow and thrive. This social infrastructure helps communities transform their ability to work together and measure impact at scale. Follow Unite Us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About NEHII:
NEHII's mission is to bring trust and value to health information technology by creating solutions for moving health data forward. NEHII, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a public/private governance model that includes health care providers, payers, and the State of Nebraska. NEHII is a statewide Health Information Exchange designed to share clinical and administrative data among providers in Nebraska and neighboring states. NEHII's purpose is to achieve health care transformation through community betterment collaboration while protecting the security and privacy of medical information. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

* Hood, C. M., K. P. Gennuso, G. R. Swain, and B. B. Catlin. 2016. County health rankings: Relationships between determinant factors and health outcomes. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 50(2):129-135. 

SOURCE Unite Us