statewide health news from FierceHealthIT

I'm glad to hear, Gov. Corzine, that you're about to sign legislation that will push New Jersey further in the directing of creation statewide health information sharing. From where I sit, it seems Read more...

If Gov. Jon Corzine (D) signs pending legislation, New Jersey will become yet another state focused on creating a statewide health information sharing infrastructure. The bill, which has already been Read more...

> The New England Telehealth Consortium has announced that it is developing a network which will link 555 clinics, physician offices, hospitals, public health centers and universities in Maine, Read more...

The state of Rhode Island has committed the funds to build out its statewide health information exchange, and also has chosen a vendor to get the job done. The state's Department of Health has tapped Read more...

Florida has become another front in the battle to foster e-prescribing adoption, with a group of health plans banding together to get the job done. The group, ePrescribe Florida, is led by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, UnitedHealthcare, Humana and AvMed. Other participants include CIGNA, Aetna, the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Florida Pharmacy Association, Florida Medical Association, Florida Hospital Association and vendors RxHub and SureScripts. The group's goal is to …

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A Wisconsin task force has completed its research on what barriers exist to creating secure, private interoperable health information exchanges--and it looks like getting even a single statewide health data network going won't be a picnic. Five particularly large obstacles, it found, included developing a common method for validating health information requests, finding ways to share information in a timely way, ensuring that information was complete, discovering ways to tie in …

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A statewide health information network is in the works for Mississippi, an effort prompted in part by the state's devastating experience with Hurricane Katrina. Last week, Gov. Haley Barbour (R) issued an executive order creating the Mississippi Health Information Task Force, a group whose goals are to develop an HIT infrastructure for the state and to improve care efficiency and quality. Among other objectives, the HIN would make sure "timely, secure and accessible health information" …

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Working with a coalition of doctors, pharmacists, hospital heads and insurance execs, New Hampshire governor John Lynch has announced an effort intended to bring all of the state's doctors e-prescribing capabilities by October of next year. Lynch is emphasizing the safety and cost benefits of e-prescribing, which Institute of Medicine research has shown to reduce prescribing errors. …

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