Last year, ONC issued a Request for Information looking for comments about a potential governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network.  Based on comments we received, along with feedback from multiple stakeholders, we decided not to continue with a formal rulemaking process, but instead pursue a non-regulatory approach to health information exchange (HIE) governance.  We committed to launching a range of activities to support and learn from existing governance initiatives and advance our HIE goals:

• increase interoperability,
• decrease the cost and complexity of exchange, and
• increase trust among participants to mobilize trusted exchange to support patient care.

HIE Governance Town Hall

We described these activities in a Town Hall on February 14.  They include:

• issuing up to four grants to develop specific solutions to barriers to to health information exchange;
• publishing a high level framework of good governance principles;
• convening leading governance entities to identify and shine a light on good governance practices and models; and
• monitoring the HIE ecosystem.

We are pleased that one of those activities, which aims to identify and shine a light on good governance practices and models, is being launched this week.

National HIE Governance Forum 

The National e-health Collaborative, an ONC grantee, has announced the launch of the National HIE Governance Forum. This forum will bring together entities that are currently serving in governance roles for specific groups of health information exchange partners at the national, state, or regional level.  Throughout the coming year, they will identify key issues and common challenges in the governance of health information exchange along with best practices to address them.  Their lessons learned will be widely shared.

Our Goal for HIE

The overarching goal for ONC remains that information follows the patient where and when it is needed, across organizational, vendor, and geographic boundaries. We believe the National HIE Governance Forum will assist us in accomplishing this goal.

If you are interested in participating in the National HIE Governance Forum, please complete this participation form by March 15.