Nebraska Health Information Initiative

The NeHII HIE continues to expand as many hospitals have committed to joining NeHII in the first quarter of 2010.  Great Plains Regional Hospital in North Platte is the most recent hospital to sign the participation agreements.  Implementation planning will begin in January.  Physicians, hospitals and healthcare entities have been approaching NeHII with inquiries and requests to participate in the exchange after learning the benefits of the HIE.  NeHII has over 3.7 million laboratory results and 1.25 million radiology reports.  Consumers remain confident in the benefits of the exchange and the opt-out rate remains at less than 2%.

NeHII is also working to launch a statewide consumer and physician education and awareness program.  The non-profit organization will be working with CIMRO of Nebraska in a coordinated physician and consumer awareness campaign to increase HIE use across the state.  CIMRO has applied to ARRA grant funding to be the Regional Extension Center for Nebraska and will offer training and technical assistance to assist physicians to implement Electronic Health Record technology and integrate with NeHII.

The State of Nebraska working in conjunction with members of an eHealth Council workgroup submitted the application and state strategic plan to the Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for consideration of HIE implementation grant funding.  The documents were created with input from all the exchanges in the state as well as public health, Medicaid and TeleHealth.  Work is now being done to write an in-depth operational plan which details how the grant funding will be used, assessed and evaluated.  The ONC is requiring each grant recipient identify and define revenue generating strategies to guarantee long term sustainability.