Calif. initiative to fund rural HIE technology

A $1 million rural health information exchange (HIE) incentive program aims to help California healthcare providers implement technologies that enable the secure and reliable exchange of health information to improve quality of care, lower costs and achieve Meaningful Use criteria.

The California Health eQuality (CHeQ) program, managed by the University of California-Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), has launched the initiative.

In describing the new rural HIE incentive program in his keynote address to the recent 2013 California HIE Summit, IPHI’s director and UC Davis distinguished professor Kenneth W. Kizer explained that the effective use of EHRs and HIE are prominent features of current efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.

Kizer, who is also CHeQ’s director, explained that the new Rural HIE Incentive Program aims to address the many challenges that rural healthcare providers face when trying to establish HIE systems, such as the scarcity of providers, particularly specialists. The need to travel for care reduces the chances that providers have access to all of a patient’s health information. As a result, patients may undergo duplicative laboratory tests or imaging studies, receive prescriptions for incompatible medications and experience other problems resulting from such fragmented care.

"The Rural HIE Incentive Program leverages a new, more cost-effective model for enabling exchange in rural communities," Kizer said. "The program offers rural providers a choice of five designated HIE service providers who have been pre-screened and qualified for their ability to provide a menu of key health information exchange services, thereby allowing rural providers to procure the services that best meet their needs at a substantially subsidized rate."

He noted that CHeQ has allocated $1 million for the Rural HIE Incentive Program for the remainder of 2013. Continuation of the program after that time will depend on the availability of funds and the results of the current effort.

"While a number of rural communities have begun to unite around the need for health information exchange and have established local HIE initiatives, many others are in need, and few have means to implement it," said Rayna Caplan, manager of CHeQ HIE funding programs. "The CHeQ Rural HIE Incentive Program addresses these challenges by providing an overall structure of support for rural HIE implementation, which includes offering a list of designated health information exchange service providers and subsidizing 65 percent of the cost of initial implementation."

"Partnering with an HIE service provider also allows rural communities to manage their local governance while outsourcing implementation," Caplan explained. "We are optimistic that the new incentive program will help accelerate health information exchange in rural communities."