One key aspect to health IT implementation is ensuring that State and regional efforts to achieve health information exchange are aligned with the national health IT agenda. These efforts also include sharing details related to federal initiatives with appropriate State and regional organizations. Below are brief overviews of two Federal-State health care coordination efforts.

Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC)

The Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) was established by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contract with RTI International in June 2006. In the first phase, the collaborative was comprised of teams representing 34 states and territories that were each charged to:

• Assess variations in privacy and security related organizational-level business policies and state laws that affect health information exchange
• Identify and propose practical solutions, while preserving the privacy and security requirements in applicable Federal and state laws
• Develop detailed plans to implement solutions

Each HISPC participant was, and continues to be, required to have the support of its State or territorial governor and maintain a steering committee and contact with a range of local stakeholders to ensure that developed solutions accurately reflect local preferences.

In the second phase of the project, the 34 teams selected a foundational component of their larger implementation plan to be completed in a six-month time frame. During this time, additional participation was sought for the HISPC’s third phase, and new states and territories joined the original HISPC teams to review high-priority areas where multi-state collaboration could foster the development of common, replicable solutions.

In 2008, HISPC moved into its third phase. Forty-two states and territories comprise seven multi-state collaboratives that are addressing privacy and security challenges related to the electronic exchange of health information. Each project is designed to develop common, replicable multi-state solutions that have the potential to reduce variation in and harmonize privacy and security practices, policies, and laws.

State-level Health Information Exchange Consensus Project

The State-level Health Information Exchange (HIE) Consensus Project is managed through a contract with American Health Information Management Association’s Foundation of Research and Education. The project’s main objective is to provide a forum for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to work with states to ensure all HIE activities throughout the Unites States align. This is a forum that enables ONC to disseminate information about the national agenda and for the states based efforts to inform the federal government thereby enabling a nationwide alignment of all health information exchange activities.