State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreements Program
Building and improving our health information technology infrastructure is critical to providing quality health care. As the complexity of our health care system continues to grow, health care providers must leverage information technology to improve patient safety and health outcomes. It is critical that Virginia health care providers employ health information technology to provide the best care for patients. Improving health care technology infrastructure offers the potential for both improving the quality and safety of patient care and helping control costs.
To that end the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 established state grants to promote health information technology and specifically Health Information Exchange. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has created two collaborative programs: State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program and Health Information Technology Extension Program.
The purpose of the Health Information Exchange (HIE) program is to continuously improve and expand health information exchange services over time and reach all health care providers in an effort to improve the quality and efficiency of health care. The program will build off of existing efforts to advance regional and state level HIE while moving towards nationwide interoperability.
To view the Notice of Award document for the State Health Information Exchange Click Here
Virginia was allocated approximately 11.6 million dollars through a funding formula to create a state-level HIE during the funding period of 2010-2014. Virginia submitted a proposal describing a 6-8 month planning process that will result in ONC-approved HIE strategic and operational plans. To view the proposal that describes the Commonwealth Health Information Management & Exchange (CHIMES) project, Click Here
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