The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded three contracts totaling $17.5 million to public-private groups to accelerate the adoption of healthcare information technology (HIT) and secure the portability of U.S. health information.
The three partnerships were established through contracts between private nonprofit entities and HHS. They are the result of three government requests for proposals (RFPs) announced earlier this year by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Dr. David Brailer, who is the national coordinator for health information technology. The fourth RFP, for development of nationwide health information network (NHIN) architectures, will be awarded to one or more contractors later in 2005, HHS said.
HHS has awarded a $3.3 million contract to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a nonprofit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization activities, to convene the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP). The HITSP will bring together U.S. standards development organizations and other stakeholders, the agency said.
A $2.7 million contract was given to the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) to develop criteria and evaluation processes for certifying electronic health records (EHRs) and the infrastructure or network components through which they interoperate. CCHIT is a private, nonprofit organization that certifies HIT products.
RTI International, a private nonprofit group, has been granted an $11.5 million contract to oversee the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC), a new partnership consisting of a multidisciplinary team of experts and the National Governor's Association (NGA). The HISPC will work with approximately 40 states or territorial governments to assess and develop plans to address variations in organization-level business policies and state laws that affect privacy and security practices that may pose challenges to interoperable health information exchange, HHS said.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
October 6, 2005
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