CalOHII AB278 Demostration Project

In May 2010 WHIN was honored to be selected as a data demonstration participant for the State of California Office of Health Information Integrity’s AB278 demonstration project

 

California was awarded $38.8 million dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for electronic health information exchange (HIE) development in California. Preserving confidence in the individual health information contained in electronic health records and the informational systems that protect and connect them is fundamental in achieving the goals of improving health care safety and efficiency. Demonstration projects are critical to the successful implementation of HIE in California in order to fulfill the State’s obligations under the ARRA grant and to develop privacy and security rules appropriate for individual health information.

WHIN will support AB278’s demonstration project goals starting from our existing expertise, body of knowledge, and operational policies and procedures. Specifically, we intend to:

  • Determine operational feasibility of implementing the policy;
  • Determine operational feasibility of implementing an electronic HIE process;
  • Discover issues associated with the operationalization of the policy; and
  • Develop and propose policy solutions.
  • Develop data flows for business-to-business exchange of data amongst healthcare providers and their business associates
  • Develop data flows for consumer-centric access to their own data
  • Develop “standard” practices to inform consumers of their rights, obligations, and impact of their choices
  • Articulating already identified barriers to implementing health information exchange
  • Testing WHIN’s existing security and privacy policies for the safe and secure exchange of health information
  • Identifying and addressing differences between state and federal laws regarding privacy of health information

It is WHIN’s goal that participation in this project will:

  • Bring transparency to data flows necessary for connected healthcare
  • Develop operations-friendly ways of ensuring patient privacy and appropriate use of data
  • Support CalOHII’s intention to build regulations that direct innovation and upgrades in HIT&E that support consumer rights and healthcare business operations appropriately