A Weekly Update on the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

North Carolina Activities

Strategic Plan for HIT in NC Available for Public Comment
The NC HIT Strategic Planning Task Force has published its draft Strategic Plan for Improving Health and Healthcare in North Carolina by Leveraging Federal Health IT Stimulus Funds for public review and comment. Click here to read it. NCHICA members are encouraged to review the plan and submit comments by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, June 17 to HITinput@dhhs.nc.gov. The Task Force is tentatively scheduled meet again on June 22 to discuss the public comments and finalize the plan, which will then be forwarded to the NC Recovery Office and the Governor for consideration. The meeting is expected to be held from 9:00 am - 12:30 pm in the Administration Building, 116 West Jones Street in Raleigh.

The Task Force is considering the governance structure and functional activities illustrated in the diagram below, which shows how the various sectors and organizations will collaborate to leverage their respective strengths and abilities. Specific organizations are mentioned in the draft report.

NCHICA Provides Guidance on NC Regional Extension Center Collaboration
On June 5th, the NCHICA Board of Directors transmitted a note to the NC HIT Strategic Planning Task Force placing "NCHICA's full support for the leadership of the NC AHEC Program and associated organizations* in developing a competitive application for stimulus funding for one or more Regional Extension Centers for the State of North Carolina. We see the Regional Extension Center(s) as an essential element in the successful adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records/electronic medical records and other tools (such as electronic prescribing and disease registries) for improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of our health and healthcare system for the benefit of all consumers in North Carolina."

* includes other organizations such as the Sheps Center at UNC-CH, the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, the NC Medical Society Foundation, the extension programs at NCSU and NC A&T, other academic medical centers and institutions of higher learning, the Community College System, the NC Institute of Public Health, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, MCNC/NC-REN, etc.

HISPC June Seminar Series
For the last three years, members of NCHICA have participated on behalf of the state in the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) project. The North Carolina HISPC team collaborated with representatives of 44 other states and territories in developing model agreements and educational tools to overcome perception, policy and technology barriers to the adoption of electronic health records and the electronic exchange of health information. This work was funded by the ONC, the same organization that will administer the $2B in funding under ARRA HITECH.

The HISPC Seminar Series will be held throughout the month of June on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will include eight 90-minute online seminars. Each seminar will highlight the work and results of the seven HISPC multi-state collaboratives as well as follow-up analysis on state law variation completed by Georgetown University. The HISPC Collaborative presentations will focus on the tools and processes developed and how they can be used by individual, local, regional and state-level stakeholders. These seminars are an opportunity to gain insights into the background thinking that may be behind the judging of competitive proposals for funding and one could expect that the incorporation of this work would be important in proposal development.

The seminars are free, but registration is required. Click here for further details or to register. Below is the list of seminars (the NC HISPC team worked on those highlighted in bold):

• June 11: Interstate Disclosure and Patient Consent Requirements
• June 16: Harmonizing State Privacy Law
• June 18: Intrastate and Interstate Consent Policy Options
• June 23: Adoption of Standard Policies
• June 25: State Law Analysis Project and Database
• June 30: Interorganizational Agreements
  

NC HIE Council Committees

• The Policy Development Committee will meet on June 24 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm at the NCHICA office. Lunch will be served: contact Mary Cornwall at mary@nchica.org if you wish to attend.
• The Technical & Operations Committee met on June 3 to continue to refine the white paper entitled A Proposed Architecture for Statewide HIE Capability for the State of NC. The revised version of the white paper will be available next week and posted on the NCHICA home page at www.nchica.org.
• The Finance & Administration Committee will meet on June 10 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm at the NCHICA office to provide comments on the financing and sustainability sections of the state's draft strategic plan for HIT. At that time, the committee will also consider some of the economic issues raised from the public comments on the Technical & Operations Committee's white paper, specifically the prospects for competition among community-based HIEs in NC and the impact that competition could have. Lunch will be served: contact Mary Cornwall at mary@nchica.org if you wish to attend.

National ARRA Activities

ONC Requests Comments on Draft Plan for Health IT Regional Extension Centers
The ONC has published a Federal Register Notice and Request for Comments on the draft plan for establishing regional extension centers to assist providers seeking to adopt and become meaningful users of health IT, as authorized by ARRA. The notice includes information on how to submit comments, which are due by 5:00 pm on June 11, 2009. Click here to read the notice.

NHIN CONNECT Seminar June 29-30
Understanding and participating in health information exchanges (HIEs) at a local and national level will be central to the long-term success of health reform, and the federal government has released a new open source solution called CONNECT to support efforts to achieve HIE. CONNECT was built to become the platform for widespread participation in HIEs while also laying the foundation for innovation. During the first annual CONNECT Seminar, professionals from the public and private sectors will convene to learn more about the new, federally-developed, open-source gateway for HIE. Topics include:

• How can you use CONNECT to participate in HIEs locally and nationally?
• What are the components of the CONNECT solution?
• Is CONNECT the right solution for you?
• What are the benefits, requirements and options for participating in HIEs?
• How can you set up, configure and use CONNECT within your environment?
• How can you be part of the CONNECT Open Source Community?

To register, click here.

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