Yes. The momentum is growing from both parties about the role of health information technology and the linkage to improved quality of care. Hearings of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee  ar exploring replacing the current payment formula for physicians under Medicare with paying for performance.  MedPac’s March 2005 Report to the Congress devoted an entire chapter to IT and Pay for Performance with recommendations for labs, hospitals and physicians. April 2005 marks one year since President Bush established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Since that time, ONCHIT has issued the Strategic Framework for Action, to (1) inform clinical practice; (2) interconnect clinicians; (3) personalize health and (4) improve population health.

There is strong interest in investment for IT. The Senate Budget resolution for FY ‘06 includes a 5-year budget neutral reserve fund for IT. While this measure does not propose new money, it permits the Congressional Budget Office to “score” (estimate the cost/cost savings) for IT over five years, rather than one.

Physicians and other clinicians are participating in committees and working groups, helping develop practical tools and resource materials, and assisting communities in working with their clinicians to adopt IT and health information exchange

A Technical Review Committee comprised of experts in healthcare informatics and community-based health information exchange is scoring the RFC and RFP applications. A separate Selection Committee comprised of a sub-set of the Foundation for eHealth Initiative Board is selecting the final portfolio of projects for funding, based on the score from the technical review committee, as well as on the key strategies of the CCBH Program.

We encourage you to subscribe to our email list serv. In the future, we expect to provide additional ways for communities to communicate with each other via the CCBH Program.

The eHealth Initiative is a diverse, multi-stakeholder coalition whose mission is to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information technology. Our members represent hospitals and other healthcare providers, practicing clinicians, community organizations, payers, employers, community-based organizations, healthcare IT suppliers, manufacturers, and academic organizations. We welcome new members who will further diversify and strengthen our efforts. To join, please go to www.ehealthinitiative.org

We would be pleased to add information or sample tools and resources about communities that are in various stages of implementing HIE.  Please go to the Communities section of this site for further information or send us an email at webmaster@ccbh.ehealthinitiative.org

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From the 134 responses originally received, 45 communities were asked to submit full proposals in response to the RFP.

LHIIs are usually referring to locally-based sharing of health data across multiple organizations within a specific (and usually limited) geographic area.

We have included links to additional resources and other organizations involved in various aspects of health information exchange. We have also included a list of suggested readings.

The CCBH Resource Center includes information from a number of communities in the process of implementing HIE. We have also included direct links to many of these communities’ web sites.

The goals of the CCBH Program are to:

There are several selection criteria. Some examples: (1) Demonstration of community commitment and leadership; (2) plans for a sustainable business model; (3) use of replicable and scalable tools; (4) matching funds; (5) overall technical readiness; (6) use of data standards; and (7) inclusion of a clinical component.

There are many ongoing activities.  Future efforts include continuing to work with our partners and communities, developing HIE tools and solutions, disseminating findings from the project; increasing awareness of communities to facilitate federal, state, philanthropy and private sector investment in “health information exchange ready” communities; and leveraging the work of other public and private sector initiatives.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology  (CCHIT) is comprised of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the National Association for  Health  Information Technology (NAHIT). The mission of CCHIT is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable HIT throughout the US healthcare system, by creating an efficient, credible, sustainable mechanism for the certification of HIT products. www.cchit.org

The Connecting Communities for Better Health Program (CCBH), is a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Office of Advanced Telemedicine (OAT). Through the program, eHI and its Foundation is providing seed funding and support to multi-stakeholder groups within communities who are using IT and health information exchange to address quality, safety and efficiency goals.  The program also includes the convening of an Annual Learning Forum and Exhibition.

The Connecting Communities for Better Health Community Learning Network and Resource Center is a central dissemination vehicle and source of information and knowledge to assist and provide support to communities nationwide — those receiving funding through the program, and all other communities interested in health information exchange using information technology and tools. The Resource Center will be developing and sharing resources and tools to help implement community-based health information exchange projects. The Resource Center will disseminate information through an online web portal, publications, and phone, web and face-to-face meetings and conferences.

Connecting for Health is a public-private collaborative effort convened by the Markle Foundation to address the challenges of mobilizing information to improve quality, conduct timely research, empower patients to become full participants in their care, and bolster the public health infrastructure.  For more information on Connecting for Health, go to www.connectingforhealth.org.

The CCR is intended to foster and improve continuity and quality of patient care when a patient is referred, transferred, or otherwise goes from one provider to another. The CCR is a standard specification being developed by the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) Workgroup of ASTM International, Committee E31 on Health Informatics.

Doctors' Office Quality Information Technology (DOQ-IT) promotes the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems and information technology (IT) in small-to-medium sized physician offices with a vision of enhancing access to patient information, decision support, and reference data, as well as improving patient-clinician communications.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded Lumetra the role of lead Quality Improvement Organization (QIO)in partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) Center for Health Information Technology.

Congress allocated the money in 2003, during the annual federal budget process. In cooperation with HRSA/OAT, the Foundation for eHealth Initiative is administering the money to be spent on seed funding and support for communities through the CCBH program.

The eHI Report entitled, “State of the Nation’s Readiness for Health Information Exchange” was compiled from data included in the responses to our CCBH request for capabilities. We found that there is great demand across the nation to implement health information exchange and related IT projects. This report is available in our resource center.

We provide various types of technical assistance and support to CCBH-funded communities, with the specific assistance tailored to the nature of the project. Assistance may include providing “hands-on” support, or advising communities in the implementation and evaluation of their efforts. In addition, information and materials such as tool kits and checklists is available to all communities via the CCBH Resource Center.

There are many public and private sector organizations and associations working on these and related topics. We have included information and links to many of these groups in the CCBH Resource Center.

Nine projects were selected for funding in 2004 and formally announced in July 2004.  Information about future funding opportunities will be made available.

We are planning and prioritizing our ongoing and future activities.  We encourage communities to stay in touch with us so that we can provide updates about plans and programs.