STATES SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN FIRST PHASE DEVELOPMENT OF RHIO BEST PRACTICES
Consensus building project to seek input from all stakeholders

CHICAGO, May 8—The Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) announces that nine state-level regional health information organization (RHIO) efforts have been selected to participate in the first phase development of consensus on best practices for state-level RHIOs. The project, under contract to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), will produce public domain information on best practices in the areas of governance, structure, financing, operations, and health information exchange policies.

“These nine states will each provide a unique perspective to the consensus building process,” states Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, AHIMA CEO. “We are also seeking much broader input and there will be significant opportunity for all stakeholders to participate in this project.”

The nine states selected are: California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Utah. Under the terms of the contract, the selected RHIOs were required to have an established form of public-private governance and be operating at the state-level, either as a single organization or in a coordinating role bringing together multiple local health information exchanges. In addition, priority was given to those RHIOs exchanging healthcare data to some degree. Other factors for consideration included geographic coverage, state population, and longevity.

“The state-level RHIO must foster leadership, resources, technology implementation, and most of all, the broad sense of trust necessary for unprecedented collaboration among all public and private health information exchange partners,” says Lynn Dierker, RN, director for community initiatives at the Colorado Health Institute, the coordinating organization for the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO). “We are excited to be able to contribute to and benefit from this consensus project and hope to accelerate the development of CORHIO while helping to integrate state-level RHIOs into the health IT landscape.”

The project includes site visits and interviews and will be guided by a steering committee comprised of representatives from the nine state-level RHIOs. The steering committee—lead by Molly J. Coye, MD, MPH, founder and CEO of the Health Technology Center—will develop a framework for describing and disseminating best practices and model(s) and encouraging adoption and coordination among state-level RHIOs. For a complete list of steering committee members, visit http://www.staterhio.org/team/steering.asp.

“During the interview process we will be seeking to determine what the RHIO leaders believe are key factors for success and what they would do differently if they could do it over,” adds Victoria Prescott, Esq, the project’s Principal Investigator. “We also want to know where the flashpoints were and what unexpected delays were encountered during the development process.”

In addition, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), other state-level RHIOs, and a variety of stakeholders will be actively involved in contributing to development of the consensus best practices through an open review process and a public consensus conference—co-convened by FORE and NCSL—planned for July 2006 in Arlington, VA.

This project was announced in February by David J. Brailer, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as a critical step in fostering state-level RHIOs across the nation. The resulting best practices will also inform the work of projects addressing state-level privacy and security issues administered the Agency for Research and Quality (AHRQ) and ONC. The estimated project completion date is August 31, 2006. For more information about the project and the July conference, visit www.staterhio.org.

ABOUT AHIMA
AHIMA is the premier association of health information management (HIM) professionals. AHIMA’s 53,000 members are dedicated to the effective management of personal health information needed to deliver quality health care to the public. Founded in 1928 to improve the quality of medical records, AHIMA is committed to advancing the HIM profession in an increasingly electronic and global environment through leadership in advocacy, education, certification, and lifelong learning. For more information, visit www.ahima.org.

ABOUT FORE
FORE provides financial and intellectual resources to sustain and recognize continuous innovation and advances in HIM for the betterment of the profession, healthcare, and the public. For more information, visit www.ahima.org/fore.

ABOUT NCSL
The National Conference of State Legislatures is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories. NCSL provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues. NCSL is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of state governments before Congress and federal agencies. For more information about NCSL, visit www.ncsl.org.