HIMSS: Wisconsin HIE floundering to survive due to unsustainability

NEW ORLEANS—Denise O'Hora Webb, MA, Wisconsin’s state health IT coordinator, admitted that the state’s health information exchange (HIE) is “in serious jeopardy” during a March 5 session focused on HIE sustainability at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference.

“We only have a little more than six months left until the September funding expiration,” she said. 

With funding from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the state planned and designed a State-Level HIE business architecture and underlying governance structure, and a statewide technical architecture for HIE. Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services entered into a contract with Deloitte Consulting on May 11, 2009, to complete the project. 

However, Webb expressed difficulties in getting buy-in from providers throughout the state. In order to be sustainable, she intimated that private investments might be necessary. 

Offering advice from representatives of the Florida HIE, Janet Hofmeister, BSCS, PMP, program manager, Florida Health Information Exchange, Harris Healthcare Solutions, said that the key is keeping the costs low. The Florida HIE has annual price tag of $2.3 million.

“That’s about our annual price as well,” said Webb, “but it’s not working. We’re having some big challenges with sustainability.”