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Health information technologies (IT) can include tools that help people stay healthy through better management of their health information. Health IT will help people gather all of their health information in one place so they can see the entire "picture". They can also share it securely with their health care providers so they can work as a team to get the best care for their individual needs.
Health IT can help to improve public health one individual at a time by building partnerships between patients and health care providers across the state.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) assigned billions of dollars to advance Health IT across the nation. Washington State received grants for several Health IT programs.
The HCA coordinates statewide HITECH grant program activities with public and private entities to align the ONC's strategic plan, and our state's legislative directives for Health IT.
The Health Care Authority (HCA) was appointed by the Governor's Office, as the lead state agency to coordinate with Washington State agencies and private health care organizations to collaborate on a statewide plan for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provisions of the ARRA. The HCA identified several opportunities for federal stimulus funding within the HITECH Act.
In addition, the governor appointed the HCA's Health Care Policy Director, Richard Onizuka, Ph.D., to serve as the state's Health Information Technology Coordinator. Under Dr. Onizuka's direction, the eHealth Collaborative Enterprise work group was formed to coordinate statewide HITECH programs and other state HIT activities to ensure state and federal requirements of collaboration, accountability and transparency are met. Please visit the eHealth Collaborative Enterprise page for more information and resources.
What is the HITECH Act?
What are entitlement funding program areas for HITECH?
What are the appropriated funding program areas for HITECH?
Who is coordinating the HITECH Act proposal for Washington State?
How much federal stimulus money is available for the HITECH Act?
Who is eligible for the federal stimulus funds?
In 2009, the HCA was appointed by the Governor as the lead state agency to coordinate public and private organizations on potential programs and funding from the Health HITECH Act provisions of national health care reform.
That same year, the Washington State Legislature passed Substitute Senate Bill 5501, which designates the HCA as the state agency responsible for appointing private sector and public sector organizations to lead implementation in a number of health information technology program areas.
The HCA administers two programs that received federal funding through the HITECH Act:
- The Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program: This state-federal initiative promotes
the use of electronic records to improve care, reduce costs and advance coordination across the
health care industry. Incentive payments are provided to eligible professionals and eligible
hospitals for the adoption, implementation, upgrade or meaningful use of certified technology.
To qualify, participants must already be serving a benchmark level of Medicaid patients.
The Incentive Program, which opened in July, expects to more than 700 professionals and hospitals to participate in 2011, representing close to $52 million in federal incentive payments. To date, more than 650 providers have already demonstrated interest. - The Washington State Health Information Exchange (HIE): The state's HIE - managed by lead organization OneHealthPort - has implemented the technological infrastructure to facilitate the transmission of standardized health care-related data between facilities, health information organizations and government agencies.
For more information on the state's health information technology efforts, please visit www.healthIT.wa.gov.
