Because lab data represents the majority of information in a patient medical record, it is important for every laboratory to stay informed about efforts to pool clinical information and create regional repositories for health data. To help laboratory directors and pathologists stay up with the latest developments in RHIOS and HIEs, DARK Daily did some research. One good source was the American Health Information and Management Association (AHIMA). It released a report in September detailing the Development of State-Level Health Information Exchange Initiatives (HIEs) (often referred to as Regional Health Information Organizations or RHIOs). The purpose of the report was “to gather information from existing state-level HIE initiatives to determine successful governance and legal, financial, and operational characteristics; to develop consensus on guidance for developing state-level HIE initiatives; and to disseminate these findings widely” (from the executive summary).
Key findings of the AHIMA report were that most state-level HIE initiatives are still in an early stage of development, and the mature ones are faced with challenges on how to expand their services in a financially sustainable way. HIEs exist in 27 states and over 200 localities. One of the major problems in getting HIEs to align is that they have come into being in a variety of ways, including state legislation, state agency efforts, and grass roots work. Only 8 states have an HIE more than 2 years old.
The financial problems of HIE expansion have led to a number of suggestions for financing, such as charging member ship fess, transaction fees, fees for a software package, program or service fees, or some combination of those fees. Beyond financing, HIEs face problems such as lack of consensus on the role of state government, lack of coordination among state agencies, lack of participation from private payers, and lack of plans for relating to similar efforts in neighboring states.
HIEs and RHIOs, once successfully implemented, will have a significant impact on how clinical laboratories and pathologists interact with office-based physicians. For this reason, the December 18 Dark Report reports on the status of HIEs in Florida, and details how a pathologist, Philip Chen, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Clinical Pathology Laboratories of Austin, TX and President of Cognoscenti Health Institute in Orlando, FL, has been elected to the Central Florida RHIO board of directors. According to Chen, “Participating in this project helps us understand the specific ways that healthcare IT will evolve in our community. This gives us a leg up in our own strategic planning. It helps us align our lab’s IT infrastructure to better meet the needs of the community we serve.” Labs and pathology groups that want to stay up-to-date on HIE / RHIO progress should take note of this story in The Dark Report and make an effort to become involved in RHIOs in their own communities.
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The complete report from AHIMA can be downloaded at the State RHIO Consensus Project website
