A Weekly Update on the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
North
Carolina HIT Strategic Planning Task Force
Governor Perdue has established the North Carolina HIT Strategic Planning
Task Force within the NC Recovery Office (http://www.ncrecovery.gov/)
"to engage key stakeholders to start work immediately to develop
a plan by mid-May 2009 when the federal regulations regarding application
for these HIT funds is expected to be published." It is expected
that the Task Force will develop a comprehensive HIT plan to guide policy
and prioritize funding decisions.
NC
HIT Strategic Planning Task Force Meetings
The Task Force met on May 4th in the Administration Building, 116 West
Jones Street in Raleigh (http://ncrecovery.gov/calendar/publicMeetings.aspx).
All meetings are open to the public. Future meetings are scheduled for
May 11 and 18 from 9:00 am - 12:30 pm. If NCHICA members are planning
to go, arrive early as seating is very limited.
May 4 Meeting - click here to see agenda
- Presentations describing EMR adoption experiences were made by Jay Riley, Office Manager at The Family Doc in Sanford, NC and Robert Hollingsworth, PA of Red Springs Family Medicine Clinic in Red Springs, NC.
- A regional EMR adoption strategy was described by Stuart James and Michele Brooks, Community Practice/University Health System Partnership from Greenville.
- Harry Reynolds provided a brief overview of the two days of hearings he chaired last week on "Meaningful Use" in Washington, DC. The full transcripts from these hearings are posted on the NCVHS website at: http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/090428ag.htm.
- The Task Force and public members divided into three smaller workgroups at the direction of Chair Steve Cline, and reported back on their discussions at the end of the meeting. Significant emphasis was placed on the need to deploy quality solutions across the state, and all three groups reported a desire to leverage Community Care of North Carolina's work on behalf of the Medicaid population - applying technology to the Medical Home model is seen as a key differentiator for North Carolina's HIT Strategic Plan. (This is consistent with work NCHICA performed earlier - see the Sustainability Plan for HIE published by NCHICA in January 2009 at: http://www.nchica.org/NHIN2/Sustainability%20Plan.pdf.)
- Consumer-centered approaches were highlighted by several of the workgroups and consensus appears to have been reached on the desire for North Carolina to keep the consumer central to the overall HIT Strategic Plan.
- An outline of the NC HIT Strategic Plan was distributed at the May 4th meeting: click here to view it.
NC
HIE Council
The Technical & Operations Committee has delivered an initial draft
of a white paper entitled, A Proposed Architecture for Statewide HIE
Capability for the State of NC. Click
here to view it. The white paper is a work in process and is the latest
deliverable from the NCHICA-chartered NC HIE Council. The Technical &
Operations Committee began drafting this white paper on March 13, responding
to a request from the NC HIE Council to study and recommend technical
approaches to achieving secure, statewide, standards-based, electronic
HIE among organizations and individuals involved in health and healthcare
in NC and, when necessary, with organizations located outside of the State.
This document is being published in draft form to be distributed for consideration and comment by individuals and organizations that might be impacted. The Technical & Operations Committee of the NC HIE Council will meet next on May 20th at the NCHICA office, and welcomes participants from the NC healthcare community. Details on this and other HIE Council Committees may be found at: http://www.nchica.org/NCHIE/committees.htm.
National
ARRA Activities
Within the last two weeks the new Secretary of HHS (Kathleen Sebelius)
was confirmed by the Senate and she, along with the 3rd National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology (David Blumenthal, MD) have assumed
their posts. This is the key leadership at HHS and ONC that will be making
crucial decisions that impact the shape and form of the ARRA stimulus
funding for healthcare and the directions for ONC.
Informing the decisions that Secretary Sibelius and Dr. Blumenthal will make will be the recommendations of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) that held public hearings to define "Meaningful Use [of electronic health records]" on April 27 & 28 in Washington, DC. Harry Reynolds, VP of Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, is the Chair of NCVHS and managed the hearings along with Dr. Blumenthal. NCVHS is expected to make a recommendation on the definition of "Meaningful Use" in the near future. Updates will be posted on the NCVHS website at: http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/.
NCHICA is represented
on the Data Use and Reciprocal Support Agreement Workgroup and the Governance
Workgroup for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Participants
include representatives from the NHIN contracts (including NC through
NCHICA) and the major federal Agencies (CMS, DoD Military Health System,
Veterans Health Administration, Indian Health Service, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health). These
workgroups meet frequently and are developing the policy documents and
governance process that will enable the rollout and broad use of the NHIN.
For more information on NCHICA's NHIN activities, visit http://www.nchica.org/Activities/NHIN.htm.
NCHICA ARRA UPDATE is produced by the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA), 3200 Chapel Hill/Nelson Blvd., Cape Fear Building, Suite 200, P.O. Box 13048, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3048, 919-558-9258, http://www.nchica.org.
NCHICA ARRA UPDATE is only sent to individuals associated with NCHICA member organizations. If you wish to be taken off the e-mail distribution list, contact mary@nchica.org.