Tennessee Closes Down Organization for State Health Data Exchange

The Health Information Partnership for Tennessee — which was established  three years ago to operate a health data exchange in the state — has announced that it is closing down, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports (Memphis Commercial Appeal, 7/9).

Background on HIP TN

The Tennessee Office of eHealth received $11 million from the 2009 federal  economic stimulus package to develop a statewide health information exchange,  and it distributed the funds to HIP TN (Goedert, Health Data Management, 7/9).

Although HIP TN conducted tests and demonstrations of health data exchange  among communities, it did not reach the point where it helped exchange clinical  data in a production environment.

Reasons for Closing Down

Will Rice — executive director of Tennessee’s Office of eHealth Initiatives  — said the HIP TN board voted to shut down the organization because it believed  the exchange “was ahead of the game and somewhat premature.” He added that the  state now is focused on helping health care providers meet the requirements of  the meaningful use program.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who  demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can  qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.

Rice said, “[W]hile the state is not abandoning its effort of statewide HIE  capacity, that’s a longer-term horizon than what’s needed to meet meaningful  use.”

Promoting Use of Direct Project

According to Rice, Tennessee officials plan to focus their health data  exchange efforts on promoting the use of the Direct Project’s clinical messaging  protocol (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 7/9).

The Direct Project is a streamlined version of the Nationwide Health  Information Network. It aims to facilitate online, standards-based exchange of  medical data between health care providers (iHealthBeat,  6/21).

According to Rice, Tennessee has yet to spend more than 70% of the federal  stimulus funding it received to establish a statewide health information  exchange. Rice said he is confident that the remaining funds will be sufficient  to promote education and awareness about the use of the Direct Project’s  messaging protocol (Modern Healthcare, 7/9).

Source: iHealthBeat

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