Organized Health Care Arrangement Status
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA")
defines an Organized Health Care Arrangement ("OHCA") to include,
among other arrangements, an organized system of health care in which
more than one covered entity participates and in which the participating
covered entities hold themselves out to the public as participating in
a joint arrangement and participate in certain joint activities as specified
in the Privacy Regulations.
The covered entities included in the link below, each independent of each
other, have agreed to collaborate voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality
care to their patients.
Quality Healthcare Alliance West
As part of the Quality Healthcare Alliance West, the covered entities plan
to participate in certain joint activities, including quality assessment
and improvement activities, where the sharing of protected health information
("PHI") on patients in the designated population may be necessary
to achieve the goals of the Quality Healthcare Alliance West.
For the purposes of the Privacy Regulations, the covered entities qualify
as an OHCA and wish to declare themselves as such for the purposes of
the Quality Healthcare Alliance West and to enable the sharing of PHI
for joint activities of the Quality Healthcare Alliance West.