Health Information Technology

Health Information Technology Policy

Health information technology (HIT), including electronic medical records and health information exchange (HIE), have rapidly become the focus of quality improvement and health care efficiency initiatives across the country. States are at the forefront of this movement and with the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have significant resources available to support HIT and HIE initiatives for the purposes of health systems improvement. While HIT has great potential to drive health care transformation, its adoption presents many state policy issues that need to be addressed, including:

• Leadership, governance, and oversight of HIT and HIE activities,
• Collaboration among private and public stakeholders, including both state and
federal government agencies,
• Appropriate standards for data creation and exchange,
• Regulation of an evolving HIE industry,
• Appropriate privacy and security law, regulation, and practice
• Financing of HIT adoption, and Sustainability of HIE, and
• Alignment of HIT and HIE initatives with broader health systems reforms.

NASHP provides assistance to public sector programs and agencies in harnessing HIT and HIE to promote quality, efficiency, and improved health outcomes by:

• Educating publicly funded programs on the value of healthcare IT and HIE;
• Assisting the public sector design policies and mechanisms for leveraging HIT to
improve program effectiveness, to measure and improve quality, and to promote
transparency and value-driven health care;
• Identifying promising practices on the intersection of informatics, HIT, HIE, and
health care delivery for persons served by public agencies;

NASHP identifies needs, challenges, and policy interventions to facilitate the adoption of HIT and HIE that will advance improvements in the efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare service delivery to underserved populations throughout the nation.