The California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) manages a four year $38.8 million HHS Cooperative Agreement grant funded under HITECH, according to the “California Health Information Exchange Program Status Report: January 2013 through June 2013” released October 2013.
According to the report, more than $3.5 million was distributed to California organizations under the state’s HIE Acceleration Program. The program is looking to expand HIE capacity at the regional level and support sustainable Health Information Organizations (HIO) as the main source to move statewide and inter-state electronic health information.
Several grant awards were awarded between January and June 2013. For example, the state disbursed Expansion grants for $606,387 to help four community HIE initiatives with capital investments in HIE infrastructure. This enabled the HIE to expand services and increase robust exchange between unaffiliated healthcare entities in specific regions.
In another award program called Infrastructure Awards, the state disbursed $760,123 to three awardees serving high population health impact areas over a broad geographic areas to improve HIE infrastructure.
The state awarded Interface Support Awards for $101,525 to one of five awardees to provide technical assistance for interface development between HIOs and providers EHRs, along with other systems. The other four awardees in the program will receive funding November 2013.
Planning grants were initiated to support needs assessments, governance formation and development of an HIE strategic and business plan for emerging community HIO initiatives. To accomplish the goal, $100,000 plus technical assistance went to four awardees.
Innovation in Data Analytics Awards allocated $350,000 to two awardees to support population health management through innovative projects to demonstrate the value of data analytics across unaffiliated provider systems. Funds are to be distributed by December 2013.
A $1,000,000 fund has been allocated to five HIE service providers selected through a competitive process. The funds will subsidize implantation of HIE services for qualifying rural healthcare providers.
Funds are also going to help selected HIE service providers deliver specific exchange capabilities in rural California. Rural healthcare providers will be able to adopt high priority standards-based HIE services from any of the designated service providers at an affordable price. Funds will be distributed and spent by December 2013.
ObjectHealth, a consulting group to help healthcare organizations, communities, and government agencies adopt health IT, received $300,000 to facilitate community-based coordination for regional HIE initiatives and to increase data exchange activities among safety net providers in the Los Angeles region.
Funds for $275,000 were awarded to CAP Consulting, a division of the College of American Pathologists to support hospital and private laboratories. The goal is to help them meet Meaningful Use objectives for Stage 1 and Stage 2. This will be achieved through education and by mapping laboratory test data so that labs can exchange lab data electronically using standard protocols across organizations.
Demonstration projects have also taken place in the state but are scheduled to close out. At that time, a report will be drafted and submitted to the legislature in fourth quarter 2013. One of the demonstration projects called the “San Diego Regional Health Information Exchange” formerly the San Diego Beacon Community has been testing opt-in-consent at one health system clinic and one large hospital.
The Inland Empire Health Information Exchange has been testing opt-out consent with five organizations including two medical centers and one Independent Physician Association of Health Information Exchanges (CAHIE).
To read the report, do an internet search for California Health Information Exchange Program Status Report.