State HIE Funding Stops but the Paperwork Keeps Flowing

Federal funding has or soon will run out for state health information exchanges, but the HIEs can expect to continue submitting progress reports to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.


Federal funding has or soon will run out for state health information exchanges, but the HIEs can expect to continue submitting progress reports to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

ONC has published a notice to extend its Information Collection Request authority for state HIE reporting. The current authorization expires on March 31, 2014 and the notice doesn’t include a new expiration date.

“States and Qualified State Designated Entities will be required to submit an annual update to the state plans reflecting updated legal, policy or technical infrastructure changes, as well as expanded content on sustainability and business planning for the HIE services fostered through the cooperative agreement, evaluation of the project, and alignment with other federal programs authorized in HITECH,” according to the notice. “ONC will issue future PINs to provide additional guidance to states and QSDEs on the annual updates to plan content areas needed. Annual updates are required one year from the approval date of the state plan.”

ONC, in turn, will use project management timelines and milestones provided in the reports to monitor progress to expand HIE capability within the states. “The development and provision of technical assistance on state, regional and national levels will be based on the state plans’ content. ONC intends to use the state plans’ content to highlight best practices, identify areas in need of technical assistance and document progress to program goals.”

And the reports won’t be short. The government estimates that the average time burden per response—1 response per year per state or territory—to be 3,341 hours for the strategic operational plan and 500 hours for updates to the state plan. The notice is available here.

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