News Release

HHS Contracts with AHIMA, eHI and HIMSS to Develop and Disseminate Successful Practices for State Health Information Exchange Organizations

HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today announced a contract award to foster collaboration among state leaders in health information exchange (HIE) to identify and share emerging best practices. The one-year, $800,000 contract with the American Health Information Management Association's (AHIMA) Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) will start in March, 2007.

"Rising health care costs amplify our need to identify successful practices that enable sustainable and secure health information exchange at a state level," ONC Interim National Coordinator Robert Kolodner, M.D., said. "We are excited about this new collaboration with key organizations, which brings together state and regional health information exchange leaders from across the country."

The project will work to identify successful governance models that include defined operations, resources and finances to generate, support and amplify health information exchange. Shared results and recommended guidance are intended to support health information exchange across the country. Delivering guidance to state and local health information exchange efforts will help support the development of a nationwide network of networks to enable health care transformation and lower costs.

During this past year, HHS contracted with FORE to provide practical guidance tools for state-level HIE organizations. The steering committee of state leaders in HIE has produced valuable recommendations to define opportunities for Medicaid, realize short-term financial sustainability, and coordinate quality and HIE initiatives.

The new contract builds on the work produced by FORE and includes subcontracts with two additional organizations: eHealth Initiative (eHI) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

"This work will be guided by an outstanding steering committee of HIE leaders. In addition, the opportunity to collaborate with these national associations will extend our reach to state health information exchange leaders, gain consensus on best practices and then distribute the results for greater impact," said AHIMA Chief Executive Officer Linda Kloss.

Information produced from this project is available at www.staterhio.org.

More information about HHS' health information technology initiative is available at www.hhs.gov/healthit.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last revised: August 29, 2008