The Health IT Landscape Through the Lens of the State CIO

State Chief Information Officers (CIO) are finding themselves front and center with regards to shaping state strategies and determining how best to use information technology (IT) to achieve key goals related to a number of major state healthcare initiatives.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) collaborated on a recent survey and study to determine how State CIOs are tackling the many challenges they face. The report entitled, "The Health IT Landscape in the States: Through the Lens of the State CIO" was just released.

Specific areas of focus for this study included Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS), Medicaid Eligibility Systems, Data Governance, Identity Management, State Level Health Information Exchanges (SLHIE), Shared Services, and Collaborations. Representatives from 26 U.S. States  and Territories participated in the survey.

The following are some of the key findings of the study:

  • For State CIOs the overarching goal is to link existing silos, and to implement a unified framework across state agencies, departments and projects whenever possible.  Consolidation and optimization are priorities for moving forward with an enterprise approach and leveraging information technology across multiple initiatives.
  • State CIOs play varying roles with the many healthcare projects across state agencies, programs, and services, often serving as the key link across these efforts -  especially with regards to establishing the oversight, governance and processes for acquisition of information technology to support these efforts.
  • State CIOs often find themselves working both with intrastate collaboration efforts in addition to state-to-state collaboration activities.
  • Over 75 percent of respondents indicated that their state will be finished with MMIS modernization by 2014. Many states appear to be outsourcing MMIS systems and data center functions.
  • Over 70 percent of respondents indicated their state will be implementing a new Medicaid Eligibility System by 2014. The projected costs for these systems ranged from $30 million to $154 million with a wide variation in costs associated with the implementation budget.
  • Data governance is the least mature capability across states, with 80 percent of surveyed State CIOs reporting no data governance structure in place.
  • States were evenly split with their plans of integrating Medicaid eligibility and enrollment systems with the health insurance marketplaces.  The largest percentage of respondents, 56 percent, was undecided.
  • Slightly over 70 percent of State CIOs indicated having a significant role in the State Level Health Information Exchange (SLHIE), though with a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Packaging the SLHIE service offerings for community shared services is a key focus for many State CIOs.
  • The majority of participating states  (69 percent) reported SLHIE as being in production or actively exchanging data.
  • Over 95 percent of State CIO respondents stated that they are using a shared services model for healthcare initiatives.  The majority of respondents (86 percent) stated that they are using shared services for Medicaid eligibility modernization, 55 percent indicated MMIS, 41 percent selected SLHIE, 36 percent HIX, and 32 percent were in the process of applying shared services for other health initiatives.

Download the complete copy of "The Health IT Landscape in the States".
 

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Future questions for States -

Future questions for States - Some key questions Open Health News (OHN)would like to explore further in subsequent studies include:

  • How many states have a comprehensive State Health IT Plan in place?
  • How many states have identified and documented the Health IT Architecture and IT Standards they intend to use to guide their state-wide health IT plans and initiatives?
  • How many states have seriously looked into the acquisition and use of 'open source' health IT solutions (e.g. EHR, PHR, HIE systems) to meet many of their needs?
  • How many states are starting to actively pursue 'open data' initiatives in the healthcare arena?