HIMSS News
NHIN Advances Foundation for Interoperable HIE in 2009
(January 5, 2009) The 5th Nationwide Health Information Network Forum, held last month in Washington, D.C. , showcased the groundbreaking work of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) trial implementations which began more than 14 months ago. This work, carried out by members of a public-private “NHIN Cooperative,” lays the foundation that will serve as the next step toward secure nationwide interoperable HIE. By making information available when and where it is needed, nationwide exchange of health information promises to increase healthcare quality, reducing both cost and medical errors.
Security of information and protection of privacy are essential to information exchange. In his keynote address to open the forum, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced a privacy and security doctrine, made up of eight principles, and a complete tool kit to guide efforts to ensure consumers have protected access to their health information (Privacy and Security Framework). Secretary Leavitt emphasized the relationship between these privacy and security measures and the groundbreaking technological advances demonstrated by the NHIN.
As of October 2007, several forces converged to create a broadly-based NHIN Cooperative. HHS awarded contracts totaling $22.5 million to nine health information exchange organizations to begin trial implementations of the NHIN. Federal chief information officers recognized the importance of exchanging health information. As a result, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Indian Health Service joined the NHIN Cooperative. Since that time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute and six additional grantees from the private sector also joined the effort.
“The work of the NHIN has come a long way in the last year to create a health information exchange environment that fosters public-private cooperation to empower consumers to benefit from electronic health information,” Secretary Leavitt said. “We need to continue to encourage the development of electronic health information exchange that balances each individual’s right to access their health information and provide robust protection and security of personal health information.”
The trial implementations have engaged communities across the United Statesand have served to demonstrate interchanges of health information across different types of organizations and regions of the country. While the information exchanged was based on fictitious “patients,” the exercises reflected real healthcare conditions.
SSA to Begin HIE
In 2009, the NHIN will go online and begin to exchange “live” data among those organizations that are ready, willing, and able to exchange health information using the NHIN specifications and standards. The first of these production partnerships was announced at the forum. Beginning in February 2009, the SSA will work with MedVirginia, a health information exchange organization and member of the NHIN Cooperative, to begin electronically processing social security disability determinations. The migration from paper to electronic verification for SSA disability determinations is expected to decrease the time from application to determination from months to minutes. This will result in efficiencies and cost savings, and also improve the quality of life for those applying for SSA disability benefits.
SSA will use the network to receive medical records for some disability applicants. The records help SSA officials determine how many of the 2.6 million annual disability applicants should receive assistance. Agency officials hope NHIN will reduce the time it takes to make an eligibility decision.
“This safe and secure method for receiving electronic medical records will allow us to improve our service to the public by cutting days, if not weeks, off the time it takes to make a disability decision,” said SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue.
NHIN should also make it less labor-intensive for medical workers to submit records. SSA is working with MedVirginia, the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, and Kaiser Permanente to implement NHIN.
