Health information exchange
ISSUE SUMMARY
As directed by Resolution 09-15, KMS has become actively involved in the statewide process that is coordinating the planning and development of health information exchange (HIE) in Kansas. The American Reinvestment & Recovery Act of 2009 included significant funding to incentivize the development of electronic health records for all Americans. Health care providers who can demonstrate “meaningful use” of an electronic medical record system will be eligible for significant incentive payments from Medicare/Medicaid over the next several years. The Kansas HIE Project being coordinated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) received a commitment for just over $9 million to help develop and implement health information exchange at the state level.
Successful demonstration of “meaningful use” requires the documented capability to electronically exchange clinical patient data with another entity. At present, there exists no infrastructure in the state of Kansas to facilitate the broad-based exchange of clinical patient data among physicians, hospitals and other providers. The KDHE-coordinated effort has been working for the past year toward the development of such an entity, and KMS, along with KHA, has fully participated in the discussions, as have more than thirty other provider and consumer groups.
The progress of KDHE’s planning process has been slowed by a number of different factors, and it is appearing increasingly likely that the KDHE-sponsored organization to oversee HIE development may not be operational until sometime in early to mid 2011. Progress on HIE development efforts has also been complicated by unofficial indications from the federal government (the Office of the National Coordinator) that it will allow providers to connect to the National Health Information Network directly, effectively bypassing state HIEs. It has also become apparent that those outside the health care provider community differ in their perspectives relating to key issues of governance, funding, and the protection and use of clinical patient data within an HIE.
Given those circumstances, KMS and KHA have initiated discussions with physicians and hospitals statewide to gauge interest in the possibility of developing a statewide, provider-led HIE in Kansas, in order to ensure that provider concerns are best articulated and incorporated into the HIE development process.
ADOPTED ACTION OR POLICY
KMS, in collaboration with the Kansas Hospital Association, should develop a provider-led organization that would create and operate a statewide health information exchange (HIE), based on following principles:
- Protection of patient privacy and personal clinical data must be paramount;
- Funding for the initial development and long-term sustainability of the HIE should be fairly apportioned among the users and producers of data within the system, and should ensure that small and rural providers are able to participate;
- The HIE’s organizational model should allow individual communities the opportunity to utilize data for quality improvement initiatives;
- It is essential that the focus of the HIE will be on improving care coordination and quality; and
The unique and primary responsibility of providers to their patients must be respected in the operations of the HIE.
Adopted by the KMS House of Delegates on May 1, 2010.
