Category Archives: HIE

NJ Health Information Exchange Program Grants FAQs Posted

Posted on by
Reply

NJ Health Information Exchange Program Grants FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions Posted Sept 21, 2009

Questions and Answers, see
HTML version as of Sept 21, 2009 on e-Healthcare Marketing.
Official PDF version.

FAQ Topics Covered
1. Master Patient Index/Record Locator Service:  software purchase or integration with state MPI/RLS.
2. Division of ONC funding of NJ HIE between state and RFA applicants.
3. Composition of  multi-departmental Review Panel.
4. NJ HIE Program Grants matching formula.
5. Number of budget years.
6. Retroactive expenditures.
7. Delayed consensus on sustainability mechanisms.
8. Definition of availability of ‘real-time’ data.
9. Definition of Regional HIE not necessarily geographic.
10. Timing of “Statement of Local Governmental Public Health Partnership.”
11. Current level of implementation.

For full FAQs Questions and Answers:
HTML version as of Sept 21, 2009 on e-Healthcare Marketing.
Official PDF version.

For additional information, see previous post on e-Healthcare Marketing.
Add info and links will be added.

Health Data Week in Washington, DC including Privacy, Security, and HIEs

Posted on by
Reply

HIEs offer to lighten the meaningful use load
Government Health IT’s Mary Mosquera reporting September 18, 2009 on AHRQ’s Annual Conference that “Health information exchanges (HIE) could help ease the burden of healthcare providers by carrying out some the reporting and technical requirements for ‘meaningful use’ of health IT, according to executives of several state exchanges.”  Mosquera quotes Gina Perez, executive director of the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN); and Marc Overhage, senior scientist at the Regenstrief Institute and chief executive officer of the Indiana Health Information Exchange.

Policy Committee Holds Hearing on Health IT Privacy, Security
iHealthBeat does a roundup story on the HIT Policy Committee meeting held September 18, 2009 with articles from Healthcare IT News and Modern Healthcare.
Here’s e-Healthcare Marketing blog’s post connecting to the Sept 18, 2009 HIT Policy Committee testimony captured in documents from ONC site.

Policy Committee: Privacy experts face off over patient control, policy safeguards
Mary Mosquera of Government Health IT reported further September 18, 2009, on privacy discussion and viewpoints expressed by Deborah Peel, founder and chair of the Patients Privacy Rights group, and Deven McGraw, director of health privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Peel focused on the need for specific patient consent for each health information request transaction, while Degraw focused on the need for rules guiding the transfer of personal health information from one site to another. The article points out their common ground as well.

Standards Panel OKs Guidance on Privacy, Security of EHRs
iHealth Beat does a story roundup of articles from HIT StandardsCommittee held September 15, 2009 with articles from HealthData Management, Modern Healthcare, Government Health IT, Healthcare IT News, and AHA News.
Here’s e-Healthcare Marketing blog’s roundup of articles on the Sept 15, 2009 HIT Standards Panel, which adds a summary of an article by John Halamka, to the mix of some of the articles above.
Plus e-Healthcare Marketing link to the presentations and updates of Standards Committee.

ONC Expands FAQs to 44 on State HIE Coop Program on Sept 17, 2009

Posted on by
Reply

State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program: 44 Frequently Asked Questions — ONC Updates On
Sept 17, 2009
Excerpted from ONC site:
Please note: Questions are organized by category and date posted. The ONC FAQ pages are updated frequently, so please check back often.

Question Categories:
–Background FAQs
–Application FAQs
–Funding FAQs
–Award Administration FAQs

List of Questions from FAQs
See ONC site page links above for up-to-date questions and answers.

BACKGROUND FAQs
A11.  What is the origin of the State HIE Program?
A10.  What is the stated purpose and goal of the State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program?
A9.  How does the State HIE Program relate to the EHR incentive payments that will be available to providers and physicians who serve people covered by Medicare and Medicaid?
A8.  How is meaningful use defined? 
A7.  What role do states play in supporting the requirements for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014?
A6.  How will State HIE Program grants be made?
A5.  What is the focus of the cooperative agreements?
A4.  What are the relative roles of the states/state designated entities (SDEs) and the federal government in implementing the State HIE Program?
A3.  How can states work with the Federal government and private sector to advance HIE among health care providers?
A2.  What is the role for the private sector in advancing HIE?
A1.  Every state, and every provider within the state, is at a different level of HIE adoption. How does this program address those disparities?

APPLICATION FAQs
B21.  What is the approach of the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program?
B20.  Who may apply for a grant and what does an applicant need to demonstrate to be considered for a Cooperative Agreement?
B19.  Can a State Designated Entity (SDE) be the prime recipient of the cooperative agreement?  In other words, must the award/funding go to the state and then to the SDE, or may it go directly to the SDE?
B18.  Is there a list of state designated entities?
B17.  Can a state apply for the cooperative agreement and during the course of the agreement transition to a public-private partnership that includes a state designated entity (SDE)?
B16.  Will all states and territories be awarded funding?
B15.  What is the application process for a multi-state applicant?
B14.  Is ONC is going to favor multi-state applications?
B13.  Are letters of support required? Why?
B12.  What kind of detail do you expect in the letters of support concerning the level of commitment or specific commitment from stakeholders?
B11.  What is the application process for HIE Cooperative Agreements?
B10.  What are the key due dates for the application?
B9.  Are historic spending expenditures still required?
B8.  How do I request an application package?
B7.  What costs should be included in my proposed budget?
B6.  How can a state that has not finished planning estimate a full four-year project budget?
B5.  How will the ONC work with states to integrate their existing plans for health information exchange within this new state grants framework?
B4.  How will my application be evaluated?
B3.  What proof of my non-profit status is required?  What if I haven’t been approved yet?
B2.  Where can applicants find modifications to the FOA?
B1.  Has the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) endorsed any platform, product or technology model for health information exchange?

FUNDING FAQs
C6.  What is my budget allocation?
C5.  How will the equity adjustments be calculated?
C4.  What are the matching requirements?
C3.  What is the process for performance-based funding? 
C2.  How does the Medicaid State plan requirement for HIE funding relate to this grant?
C1.  Are any post-award adjustments anticipated to the proposed budgets?

AWARD ADMINISTRATION FAQs
D6.  When will awards be made?
D5.  How will be applicants be notified of an award?
D4.  What reporting requirements are required?
D3.  What are the cooperative agreement terms and conditions of award?
D2.  Please explain the how the State HIE cooperative agreements will be evaluated?
D1.  What is your vision for the State HIT coordinator?  Is that position to be a named official within the state, or do you envision that position to be someone who is actually doing the work?  Do you expect that this is a full-time employee (FTE) or is this just part of an existing leadership position?

Remember: The ONC FAQ pages are updated frequently, so please check back often.

NJ Provides Guidance on Sep 18 Call-in#2

Posted on by
Reply

Guidance to Be Provided on the RFA for Health Information Exchange Projects –Sept 18, 2009:
Phone-in details below. State issues Sept 17 press release  about call.
Per NJ HIMSS Sept 17, 2009 e-mail: “The State of New Jersey will host another conference call, jointly sponsored by the New Jersey Hospital Association and the New Jersey Chapter of HIMSS, to answer questions and disseminate information about next week’s upcoming Health Information Exchange Request for Applications deadline.

The call will be taking place tomorrow, September 18th, at 1:30PM.  Anyone interested in submitting an application for possible Federal funding for a proposed Health Information Exchange in New Jersey or anyone desiring more information about this process is strongly urged to attend this call.” 

DATE:           Friday, September 18, 2009
TIME:            1:30pm
CALL-IN #:   877-214-6371
CODE:           953415
Please note that the line can hold 125 people so if there is excess, the State will accept email questions.

“The RFA solicits innovative, community-level health data exchange projects to submit to the federal government for potential grant funding, and is available at http://nj.gov/recovery/grant/”

See earlier e-Healthcare Marketing post on NJ Grants.
For context, you may want to review New Jersey’s Letter of Intention to ONC for NJ’s HIE Cooperation Agreement or LOIs from seven other States that have been published online.

New Jersey Health Information Technology Act (pdf)
NJ P.L. 2007, c.330: Approved January 13, 2008

Published: 14 State Letters of Intent on Health Information Exchange

Posted on by
Reply

Eight Fourteen Letters of Intent on HIE Collected
From California to New Jersey
So far through reader help and browsing, we’ve collected 8 officially published Letters of Intent for the Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program that were filed Friday, September 11, 2009. States include California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington. Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin added 10/14/09. 
See “States File HIE Letters of Intent to ONC” on e-Healthcare Marketing where updates are being posted.

When you come across any State HIE LOIs that have been published on official state sites, please send me the link either by adding to comments or sending to my email address available on About Page. Thank you.

Standards Panel Roundup: Okays Privacy/Security Details; Ready for Next Steps

Posted on by
Reply

HIT Standards Committee takes leap  forward; on to next steps
Report roundup of Sept 15, 2009 meeting
Halamka details:”The Latest Deliverables from the HIT Standards Committee”
Updated matrix of 29 measures from Quality Committee, pivotal discussion about quality measurement reporting among five types of stakeholders with five types of data exchange , security recommendations, summary of clinical operations recommendations for meaningful use, and an overview of implementation guidance from HITSP, as reported by Committee vice-chair John Halamka in Life as a Healthcare CIO on September 15, 2009.

Federal panel okays EHR security, privacy standards
Mary Mosquera, Government Health IT, reported that “The Health IT Standards Committee endorsed a set of security and privacy standards for electronic health record systems that it said would get progressively tougher without holding back wider health information sharing.” Mosquera also reported that Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO, has been named chair of the new Adoption and Implementation workgroup, and would like to establish a baseline measure of current adoption.

Advisory Panel OKs Privacy Standards
Joseph Goedert of HealthData Management reports “The recommendations will help ONC and other officials of the Department of Health and Human Services as they develop rules to define meaningful use of EHRs and implement Medicaid and Medicaid incentive programs under the stimulus law.”

Standards panel gets into nitty-gritty of quality reporting
Bernie Monegain of Healthcare IT News reported ”The heads of the federal Health IT Standards Committee, Jonathan Perlin and John Halamka, moved the panel at its meeting this morning to the next phase of work – guidance for implementation.”

For the agenda, presentations, and matrixes presented in the Sept 15, 2009 Standards Meeting, see previous e-Healthcare Marketing post.

HIT Standards Committee Meeting–Sept 15, 2009

Posted on by
Reply

HIT Standards Committee Meeting–Sept 15, 2009
Time: 9am to 3pm EST
See Web and audio connections below. For html version of agenda on e-Healthcare Marketing.
Excerpted from HIT Standards Committee Meeting Page.

  • Agenda (PDF)
  • Meaningful Use Quality Measure Grid Update [PPT]
  • Report from Privacy & Security Workgroup: Implementation Specifications Recommendations [PPT]
  • Discussion on Standards Implementation Specifications (Clinical Operations Workgroup) [PPT]

    • To connect by Web go to ONC’s Health IT Standards Committee Meetings: How to Participate
    Note: Connection will start 10 minutes prior to meeting. Room on Web is limited.
    Audio:   US toll free:   1-877-705-6006
    International Direct:  1-201-689-8557
    Confirmation Code: HIT Committee Meeting

    Diana Manos in Healthcare IT News gave brief preview: “Federal committees to continue work on meaningful use.”
    John Halamka shares five lessons on security for healthcare information exchange.

    Halamka: Security for Healthcare Information Exchange

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Halamka shares five lessons for Healthcare Information Exchange
    John Halamka, vice-chair of the Health IT Standards Committee, in his Life as a Healthcare CIO blog, on September 14, 2009 shares his five top lessons garnered from participating in the committee’s Privacy and Security Workgroup meetings. This should provide a framework for looking at the September 15 Standards Committee meeting.

    See earlier e-Healthcare Marketing post for agenda of Standards Commitee meeting on September 15, 2009.

    Children’s, Primary Care Ped Practice to push clinical information into patients’ PCHRs

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Hospital Ambulatory and Primary Care Physician Practice to Push EHR data to single PCHR system
    A September 14, 2009 press release from Children’s Hospital and eClinicalWorks  announced a collaboration which they state will be “the first instance in which two separate health care provider organizations, Children’s Hospital Boston and the Pediatric Physicians’ Organization at Children’s(PPOC) , will feed a single PCHR (personally controlled health record) from their different electronic medical record (EMR) systems – giving patients a more complete, comprehensive view of their medical information.” They anticipate the new system to be implemented by early 2010.

    Kyle Hardy of Healthcare IT News reported on September 14, 2009 that Daniel Nigrin, MD, chief information officer at Children’s, said “This will exemplify a revolutionary new model for health information exchange and present combined health data to patients in a way that is easily accessible and manageable.”

    States File HIE Letters of Intent to Office of National Coordinator

    Posted on by
    Reply

    States and Territories file Letters of Intent to ONC about
    Health Information Exchange Programs on Sept 11, 2009
    See alpha list on later Oct 14, 2009 e-Healthcare Marketing post.
    Starting a list of state letters as they come to my attention:
    New Jersey (pdf)
    Illinois (pdf)
    Washington (pdf)
    North Carolina (pdf) 
    Vermont (pdf)
    California (pdf)
    Minnesota (pdf)  MN Governor’s Designation (pdf)
    Michigan (pdf)    MI Governor’s Press Release (html)
    Utah (pdf)
    Tennessee (pdf)
    Wisconsin (pdf)
    Oregon (pdf)
    Missouri (pdf)   Missouri HIE Overview Slides (pdf)
    North Dakota (pdf)  
    Florida (pdf)
    Oklahoma (pdf)    OK Governor’s Designation (pdf)

    Please help add to this list. When you come across any State HIE LOIs that have been published on official state sites, please send me the link either by adding to comments or sending to my email address available on About Page. Thank you.