New Mexico Information Exchange Shows Potential of Obama HIT Campaign

The great health information technology experiment launched by the Obama Administration is still in its early stages. There has been no flood of physicians installing electronic health record (EHR) systems, and the government’s program to fund health information exchanges (HIEs) across the land is embryonic. Yet there are some promising signs of life out there.

One of them is the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC), a five-year-old community effort in Albuquerque that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson last week recognized as the state’s official HIE. Like the majority of HIE initiatives, NMHIC is not yet fully operational. But, with help from federal grants, including one for the testing of the national health information network, it has been rapidly developing its capabilities. The technology for the HIE’s infrastructure is being provided by MedPlus, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics.

Early next year, according to Maggie Gunter, president of NMHIC, the organization plans to launch both a public health reporting service and a web portal that will allow physicians to view a large volume of patient data residing in the information systems of hospitals, medical practices, labs and imaging centers. Data feeds to physician EHRs will also be available.

The organizations participating in NMHIC include the Presbyterian Health System, which encompasses eight hospitals and a 400-physician group; the Lovelace Health System, which has four hospitals; ABQ Health Partners, a 200-doctor independent group affiliated with Lovelace; Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, NM; Tricore Reference Laboratory, and Albuquerque Ambulance. Discussions are ongoing with the University of New Mexico Health System, Dave Perry, chief information officer of NMHIC, tells BNET.

With its current participants, NMHIC has created a master patient index that covers about 900,000 of New Mexico’s 2 million residents. To obtain the rest and create a truly effective HIE, NMHIC must also get the smaller independent practices involved. At present, Gunter estimates, fewer than 10 percent of physicians in small practices have EHRs. Although the state’s other doctors could still use NMHIC’s web portal to view data, they must have EHRs to contribute patient information to the HIE.

That’s where the new government health IT program comes in. Besides the $45 billion in financial incentives that will be available to physicians and hospitals for “meaningful use” of EHRs, some $2 billion has been designated to promote HIEs and help physicians implement EHRs, among other purposes. NMHIC will receive about $7 million over four years for its information exchange, according to Perry. While that’s only half of the money it needs, he adds, NMHIC hopes to raise the rest from private sources, mainly health plans and employers.

Meanwhile, NMHIC has joined with two other organizations-the New Mexico Medical Review Organization and the New Mexico Primary Care Association-to sponsor one of the new federally funded health IT regional extension centers (HITRECs). With $8.8 million from Uncle Sam, the New Mexico HITREC will try to persuade 1,000 primary-care doctors to adopt EHRs and will help them choose and implement their systems. While trained technicians are in short supply, Gunter and Perry are confident that, with help from area hospitals, they can perform this feat. What’s more, these newly computerized practices will help grow the NMHIC network, because the physicians must exchange data to qualify for the government health IT incentives. “As we go out and help these smaller physician practices deploy EHRs, the HITREC will also be integrating them into the health information exchange, so they can demonstrate meaningful use,” says Perry.

If organizations such as NHMIC evolved across the country, I would have high hopes for the Obama health IT campaign. Whether this will happen is unclear; but there is no doubt that it could, with the help of strong community and state leadership.