“Basically, once it’s built, it’s shared” among the 12 collaborating states and Washington, D.C., said Anthony Rodgers, director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
Rodgers described the collaboration to the State Alliance for e-Health, an arm of the National Governors Association, meeting today in Arlington, Va.
The collaboration would share the results of its work with states that did not receive the Medicaid Transformation grants announced in late January by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he said. The goal, he said, “was to avoid creating 50 different Medicaid” EHRs.
Arizona got about $11.75 million in two years to build a Medicaid health information exchange for use statewide. Rodgers said other public and private funds have been committed to the project.
Within 18 months, it will provide a Web-based, networked EHR that’s available to every Arizona doctor who treats Medicaid patients. To use it, a physician needs only a PC and a high-speed Internet connection, Rodgers said.
A separate project in Arizona aims to provide broadband service to everyone in the state in the next two years, he told the NGA panel.
Asked why the state will build a system instead of buying one that is commercially available, Rodgers responded that “you have to be able to control your data” on Medicaid patients and cannot turn it over to a third party. In addition, he said, there are few if any off-the-shelf products that meet Medicaid requirements. “The business model doesn’t necessarily attract a lot of commercial players,” he said.
The EHR project will extend to long-term care and behavioral health providers, Rodgers said.
The 13 states may collaborate on applications for the foundation system Arizona will build. They will share lessons learned and aim for a common vision for Medicaid health information exchanges, Rodgers said.
“Hopefully, all the other state Medicaid directors will see the value of this and come participate as well,” he added.
Among the other cooperating states, Connecticut got $5 million for a health information exchange and e-prescribing, Hawaii received $3.2 million for its VistA network, Kentucky got $5 million for a health information partnership and Wisconsin received $3 million for a health information exchange.
Other transformation grants will pay for automation of pharmacy claims, portable EHRs for children in foster care, one-stop credentialing of health care providers and fingerprint ID systems at the point of service, among other projects.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Nancy Ferris
Quelle/Source: Government Health IT, 30.03.2007
