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GCN Home > 04/03/06 issue

Feds look for common thread among medical info exchanges

With the pieces in place, officials say now is the time to get involved with state, regional organizations

By Jason Miller, GCN Staff

When Jan Root talks about the potential of regional health information exchanges, it doesn’t take her long to get to the possibilities of the real dollar savings.

As assistant executive director of the Utah Health Information Network, one of the first regional health information organizations in the country, Root points to the success of the data exchange concept from any number of her organization’s 1,500 members.

For instance, Desert Mutual Benefit Administrators, a nonprofit insurance and retirement planning provider, saves about $1 million in personnel costs a year using UHIN.

She talks about how Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Health Care and other large insurance companies have seen what they pay to process a claim fall to about 19 cents, while other transactions, such as those under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, are free.

“RHIOs should be about reducing costs of health care,” Root said. “We can get rid of faxes and phone calls from providers to payers, or providers to providers. A medium-size office could reduce one or two full-time positions, and that is a big chunk of change.”

UHIN is a regional health information organization that lets members send secure messages to each other. But UHIN’s approach is different from that of other RHIOs around the country. In fact, there is no common definition of a regional health information organization.

“There is some market confusion of what RHIOs will do,” said David Clark, director of integration and interoperability for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, a not-for-profit industry association in Alexandria, Va. “They come in all shapes and sizes. Some have technical infrastructures and some do not.”

Clark estimated there are about 300 of them across the country and said at least 28 counties are looking into developing information exchanges, while other RHIOs will focus on governing smaller exchanges.

Reference point

The diversity of organizations is why the federal government is starting to play a larger role. David Brailer, national coordinator for health IT in the Health and Human Services Department, recently said his office likely will not mandate what it means to be a RHIO. But it would like to set certification standards and create an objective reference point for RHIOs to follow.

More news on related topics: Health IT, Management, State & Local



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