Sen. Moore named to State Alliance for e-Health

January 12, 2007...The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) today announced the appointment of Massachusetts State Senator Richard T. Moore to represent the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) on the recently established State Alliance for e-Health. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas will chair the development of consensus efforts to improve the nation's health care system through the effective and efficient use of health information technology (HIT).

Senator Moore, who chairs the influential Legislative Committee on Health Care Financing in Massachusetts, is co-chair of the NCSL Health Information Technology Champions Project. This eighteen-month project will develop a core of legislative expertise related to state health information technology policy across states and at NCSL and create a base for continuing policy analyses in this rapidly evolving area.

Moore has been a key leader in the development of the Massachusetts e-Health Initiative – a program to establish electronic health records and computerized physician order entry systems in all Massachusetts hospitals in the next four years. “Health information technology is the key to improving the quality and safety of our health system while containing rising costs,” Senator Moore explained.

The State Alliance provides a nationwide forum through which stakeholders can work together to identify inter- and intrastate-based HIT policies and best practices and explore solutions to programmatic and legal issues related to the exchange of health information. The State Alliance will guide the efforts of governors, elected state officials and others with expert guidance to help them develop real-world solutions and model practices for improving the quality and efficiency of health care.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices was awarded a contract from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to establish and manage the State Alliance for e-Health, a consensus-based, executive-level body of state elected (and appointed) officials to collectively address state-level health information technology (health IT) issues and challenges to interoperable electronic health information exchange.

The State Alliance for e-Health will:

From a state-specific perspective, address barriers to health information exchange and adoption of health IT, while preserving privacy, security, and consumer protections.

Build consensus in seeking the harmonization of the variations in state policies, regulations, and laws, where appropriate, and develop standards and/or guidance for modifying such policies, regulations, or laws.

Allow for dialog among states that will fuel creativity and partnerships among states and with the private sector in the health IT arena.

Allow for the appropriate input of experts and others working on health IT endeavors to inform state policymaking.

The State Alliance for e-Health will be composed of elected and appointed officials including governors, state legislators, attorneys general, and insurance commissioners. In the initial year, the State Alliance will meet quarterly (beginning in January 2007) to address state-level health IT issues including barriers to interoperability, privacy and security issues, and state law and regulatory barriers to health IT related to the practice of medicine.

The State Alliance will be supported by a non-voting advisory committee and, for the first year, three taskforces. The advisory committee will provide technical expertise and support to the State Alliance on key issues related to health IT. In addition, each taskforce will be composed of key stakeholders at the state-level who can provide expertise and experience in addressing state-level health IT issues and present recommendations to the State Alliance. The specific issues that each taskforce may initially address are listed below.

The Health Information Confidentiality (HIC) Taskforce will address issues related to the privacy and security of health information exchange. It will receive input from the findings and follow-up work products that emerge from the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) project. In the initial year, the HIC Taskforce will meet monthly, beginning in February 2007.

The Practice of Medicine (POM) Taskforce will assess state law barriers to the practice of medicine. These may include the impact of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA); regulations and licensure laws that hinder the ability to engage in telemedicine; medical malpractice and other liability issues related to health information exchange; and documentation requirements, such as in the use of pen and ink signatures. In the initial year, the POM Taskforce will meet monthly, beginning in February 2007.

State-level Health Information Organization (SHIO) Taskforce will address some of the following: options for governance and financial sustainability models for health information exchange; potential relationships between payers and state-level health information exchange efforts; and means to integrate state-level health information exchange with public health programs. The SHIO Taskforce will meet three times in the initial year with the first meeting to be scheduled.

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