Health Information Exchanges

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are networks of electronic health information that permit healthcare providers or other healthcare entities, such as your health plan or health insurer, to share your health information for treatment, payment, and other purposes permitted by law. By seeing records of past care received at other locations in an HIE, providers can make more informed decisions about care plans and avoid duplicative or unnecessary treatment. The goal of the HIE’s is to help participating physicians and providers give better, more efficient care to their patients by the sharing of health information across systems. Please notify your healthcare team at your appointment that you have been seen at another facility. If that facility also participates in the same HIE’s as Duke Health, Duke Health may be able to access and share your health information with these other participants for treatment purposes and for payment of treatment services.

For more information and to view participating healthcare organizations, please visit the health exchange partnership websites below:

• Care Everywhere
• Care Quality
• NC HealthConnex
• nference

You may opt-out of the Care Everywhere exchange by doing one of the following:

• Mail your written request to DUHS Privacy Officer, Duke University Health System, DUMC Box 3162, Durham, NC 27710; OR
• Email* your request with “Opt-Out” in the subject line to Compliance@dm.duke.edu; OR
• Call our Compliance Integrity Line at 1-800-688-1867 and expressly include your request to “Opt-Out” of a specific HIE.

Include all of the following with your request so we can be sure to identify the correct medical information to restrict from the HIEs that Duke Health participates in:

• First and last name (and middle name, if applicable)
• Duke Health Medical Record Number (MRN)
• Date of birth
• Address

*NOTICE: If you send health information to Duke Health via email, please know that your message may be sent in an unencrypted email. An unencrypted email means there is a risk that the information in the email and any attachments could potentially be read by a third party when it is sent over the internet.

You may opt-out of having your information shared between providers through NC HealthConnex by completing the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) “Opt-Out” form available here and mailing it to the following address:

North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority
Mail Service Center 4101
Raleigh, NC 27699-4101

Duke is working with a company called “nference,” a leader in medical data. We are working together to speed up the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat diseases and to improve care for the communities we serve.

If you do not want nference to use your de-identified information, you can “opt-out” by doing one of the following:

• Mail your written request to DUHS Privacy Officer, Duke University Health System, DUMC Box 3162, Durham, NC 27710; or
• Email* your request with “Opt-Out” in the subject line to Compliance@dm.duke.edu; or
• Call our Compliance Integrity Line at 1-800-688-1867.

You will need to include all the following information with your opt-out request so Duke can remove your de-identified information from the data available through the nference partnership.

• First and last name (and middle name, if you have one)
• Duke Health Medical Record Number (MRN)
• Date of birth
• Address

*NOTICE: If you send health information to Duke Health via email, please know that your message may be sent in an unencrypted email. An unencrypted email means there is a risk that the information in the email and any attachments could potentially be read by a third party when it is sent over the internet.