After some big talk, the Louisville, Ky., Health Information Exchange (LouHIE) is modifying its plans for a regional electronic health records repository and has postponed its launch. The board of directors overseeing the project wants to take a more ambitious approach than the plan the University of Louisville originally created. Instead of thinking of the repository as an e-health trust, the board prefers to think of LouHIE as a health records bank, said Judah Thornewill, a researcher in the university's School of Public Health and Information Sciences and a leader of the health information exchange project. Area residents would have accounts at the bank and information would be deposited into those accounts and withdrawn by health care providers when patients authorize them to do so.

The university's plan called for signing up 100,000 people who would pay $5 per month to maintain their accounts. But board members are now considering a plan calling for half a million participants who would each pay less. The original plan called for finding a contractor to build and operate the repository while fleshing out a nonprofit organization to oversee the exchange and make policy. The goal was for the exchange to be up and running by early next year.

For more on LouHIE's plans:
- read this article from Government HealthIT.