President’s Blog | Improving Minnesota Health Care Quality, Affordability, and Equity: Strategic Priorities for 2021-2025

June 21, 2021

In the past few years, MN Community Measurement’s work has been evolving and changing. Many people know MNCM as an organization that collects and publishes data on health care quality, cost, and equity. Others know us as an organization that has led the nation in developing and using measures of health care quality that hold the health care system to a high standard of measuring outcomes of care. These things are true and will continue to be true. However, we also understand that to bring the most value as an organization – and to drive improvement farther and faster – we need to partner with and actively support the success of organizations that are doing the hard work of putting data into action and need the right data to make decisions.

I am pleased to share MN Community Measurement’s new strategic plan for 2021 to 2025, approved by the MNCM Board of Directors in May 2021. The plan reflects this important balance between maintaining MNCM’s strong foundation and working in new ways to drive success. The key elements of the plan include:

  • Maintaining and enhancing MNCM’s core strengths, reputation, and influence related to meaningful measures and high quality, objective data and reporting;
  • Meeting evolving stakeholder needs by modernizing and transforming approaches to data collection, management, sharing, and use;
  • Developing and expanding relationships with public and nonprofit entities to achieve broader impact and accelerate improvement; and
  • Making improvement in health equity a priority that is embedded in all areas of our work.

The first pillar of the strategic plan emphasizes the importance of the foundational work that has made MNCM successful over time – most notably, serving as a multi-stakeholder convener and an objective source of reliable data. Another part of this work is ensuring the relevance of the quality and cost measures MNCM uses, which includes both adapting measures as evidence and needs evolve and adding or removing measures to remain aligned with community priorities.

The second pillar is a continuation and enhancement of work that has been steadily progressing since 2017 to modernize MNCM’s data infrastructure and the ways we do our work to better support stakeholders – health care providers, health plans, and others – in their efforts to improve health care quality and value. By reducing data collection burden and streamlining flows of data, MNCM can deliver more timely and actionable information and resources will be freed up to focus on improvement. Among other things, this pillar includes MNCM’s PIPE data submission method and the CHIRP (Common Health Information Reporting Partnership) initiative.

The third pillar represents a commitment to engaging with others to proactively drive improvement toward priority goals, and to broaden MNCM’s impact by expanding the use of our data to support policy decisions and to generate research evidence about what works to improve health care quality and affordability. As an example, MNCM is partnering with HealthPartners Institute and the Minnesota Department of Health on the MNCARES study of how different care coordination models affect patient outcomes.

And finally, the fourth pillar is not really a separate pillar but a commitment to ensuring that health equity is a priority that is embedded throughout all areas of MNCM’s work. Health equity is an urgent priority, including but not limited to equity in outcomes by race and ethnicity. We must be intentional and hold ourselves accountable for how MNCM’s work supports progress toward equity. In the near term, our work in this area includes supporting our stakeholders’ needs for data to improve equity, enhancing the value and actionability of our existing data, and incorporating equity into measure selection and design. We will also assess the current landscape regarding collection of data elements related to health-related social risks like food and housing, to understand and plan for how best to meet stakeholders’ needs in this area.

We are excited by the commitment and energy that we see around this work in Minnesota, and grateful for the partnership and support from so many people and organizations that enables our success. If you’re not already involved in our work, please check out some of our data and reports , look at past and upcoming events, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter , or contact us with questions.

Thank you!

Julie Sonier is President and CEO of MN Community Measurement.


Posted in Blog

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October 20, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — October 20, 2026 — MN Community Measurement (MNCM) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Koble-MN's health information exchange (HIE) business line and the MNSHINE brand from The Koble Group. On November 1, MNCM will officially change its legal name to Minnesota Statewide Health Information Network and Exchange, known as MNSHINE. The transition follows a special joint meeting of MNCM's Board of Directors and members on October 12, at which the Board unanimously approved resolutions authorizing the acquisition, changing the organization's legal name, and establishing a new HIE Advisory Committee. Members unanimously adopted the name change and related amendments to the organization's Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. An intentional decision to collaborate The transition is the result of an intentional decision by Minnesota health care leaders to collaborate on a health data landscape that makes sense: one that reduces redundancy, increases efficiency, and delivers needed information to those with legal authorization to receive it, where and when it is needed, without unnecessary administrative barriers. "This is not simply a merger of services. It is a deliberate choice to build the kind of health data infrastructure Minnesota deserves," said Liz Cinqueonce, President and CEO of MNCM. "For too long, organizations across our state have had to navigate duplicative systems and disconnected data. By bringing measurement and exchange together, we can reduce that burden and make sure the right information reaches the right people at the right time, with patient privacy protections firmly in place, so they can focus on improving care." The effort builds on months of work by the Executive Leadership Council, convened earlier this year by MNCM, the Minnesota Electronic Health Records Consortium, and Koble to explore how a sustainable, statewide health data utility could serve the public interest. "Minnesota is at its best when we take on difficult challenges together and align on solutions," said Mark Steffen, MD, Chair of the MNCM Board of Directors. "The Board's unanimous support reflects a shared conviction that our future depends on organizations keeping their unique strengths and missions while participating in shared infrastructure and governance. That balance is what enables greater coordination, transparency, efficiency, and impact." A trusted backbone for Minnesota's health data Minnesota's future health data ecosystem is one in which organizations retain their unique strengths and missions while participating in shared infrastructure and governance. The vision for MNSHINE is to become the health data utility, governed in the public interest with strong privacy protections and transparency, that serves as the trusted backbone connecting these efforts, ensuring data can be used more effectively to improve health, wellbeing, and outcomes for all Minnesotans. By bringing the measurement of health care quality, cost, and utilization together with the infrastructure that moves clinical data between organizations, MNSHINE will be positioned to support providers, payers, public health, researchers, policymakers, and communities alike, each within the limits of applicable law and participant agreements. The goal is healthier people, stronger communities, greater equity, better public decisions, smarter investments, and a health system that learns continuously. Continuity for HIE participants HIE services will continue without interruption. To ensure continuity of leadership and relationships, Chad Peterson, CEO of The Koble Group, has joined MNCM as Senior Vice President of HIE Services. “For HIE participants, this transition opens new possibilities,” said Peterson. “When exchange and measurement are guided by one mission, we can reduce duplication for providers and better support care coordination, while holding firm to the privacy protections patients expect. I’m proud to help lead that work, and I’m committed to making sure every participant feels supported as we grow.” MNCM has also established the HIE Advisory Committee as a standing committee of its Board of Directors. The committee continues the work of the Koble-MN Advisory Committee and will advise the Board on interoperability, participant relationships, privacy, security, data governance, and health equity. Jennifer Lamprecht of Sanford Health and Dr. Justine Mrosak of Hennepin Healthcare have been appointed to co-chair the committee, which will include consumer representatives alongside members representing a cross-section of Minnesota's health care community. Protecting patient privacy This transition changes who operates Minnesota's health information exchange. It does not change how patient information is protected or who may access it. MNSHINE will continue to operate in compliance with HIPAA and the Minnesota Health Records Act, which is among the strongest patient-consent laws in the nation, and in compliance with the participant agreements that govern how information is exchanged. Health information exchange and measurement will each remain governed by their own legal and contractual requirements, and bringing them into one organization does not change the purposes for which patient information may be used.
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