Nebraska Health Information Initiative

As NeHII wraps up a very successful year and begins 2010, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the accomplishments of 2009.

In January 2009, NeHII focused on testing and exchanging data in preparation for the pilot, which went live in a production environment on March 30th.  Participants were Alegent Health, Children's Hospital and Medical Center, BlueCross BlueShield of Nebraska and The Nebraska Medical Center.  Methodist Health System joined on May 4th.

The pilot phase completed on June 30th, and on July 9th, the NeHII Board of Directors determined that NeHII was ready to expand statewide.  The first hospital to join NeHII following the successful completion of the pilot was Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in Hasings, NE.

On September 10, 2009, Governor Dave Heineman informed Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, that NeHII would serve as Nebraska's State Designated Entity to receive Health IT stimulus funding.

Also in September, NeHII submitted a letter of intent to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to be involved in the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program, and in October, NeHII submitted the application and the State Strategic Plan.  The documents were created by workgroups representing all the exchanges in Nebraska as well as public health, Medicaid, Telehealth, and the state of Nebraska.

In December 2009, NeHII received its 501(c)3 status.  This designation took approximately 12 months to secure.

Scattered throughout the major events were dozens of small and large successes made possible by a variety of NeHII stakeholders.  We would like to congratulate each and everyone on their achievements, and thank them for a job well done.  But now there is even more to do.  As we look forward to a very busy 2010, we expect to continue NeHII expansion across the state and work with the community to achieve real and lasting health benefits for the citizens of Nebraska.