Feds outline plans for electronic exchange of patient information

03.05.2012
The U.S. government expects to provide both money and standards guidance for healthcare providers to deploy and use health information exchanges (HIEs) in a way similar to how electronic prescribing was quickly adopted.

During a webinar Wednesday, Claudia Williams, director of the State HIE Program at the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), said proposed standards for HIEs should be published in the July.

The ONC will first publish a request for information, followed by a notice of proposed rule making and then a final rule.

Williams said the government does not intend to set up HIEs or restrict them to one type - whether national, state, regional, public or private. The government's role will be to establish the vocabulary and the code sets to ensure information contained in electronic health records systems can be exchanged no matter which network platform is used.

"A national health information network is a set of standards, services and policies that allow information to flow across the Internet in a safe and secure way. We also do not expect there will be one solution, or one architecture or a one-size fits all [approach]. We think multiple approaches will sit side by side," Williams said.

The government will use both incentives and penalties to encourage providers to exchange information in a certified way. Williams called the HIE program "voluntary" but with a validation process. Criteria will focus on data transport, querying, provider directories, privacy and security expectations, and business practices of every validated entity.