Team Description
Arizona has been awarded a subcontract worth $350,000 to explore privacy and security issues related to electronic health information exchange. The subcontract provides the State the resources to assess business practices that affect the privacy and security of the exchange of interoperable health information. Based on this assessment, the Arizona Health-e Connection will identify practical methods to enable the electronic exchange of health records and protect the privacy and security of health information.
The prime contract is held by RTI International and is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Office of the National Coordinator. The Privacy and Security project is a collaborative effort with a total of 34 states and U.S. territories to share research and best practices
Working Group composition and charges
Our working group composition, organization and charges are described below.
Variations Working Group (VWG). The VWG will assess variations in organization-level business policies and practices and categorize them as barriers, best practices or neutral with respect to interoperability. As requested in the RFP, this group will work closely with the Legal Working Group to identify any legal drivers behind the policies and produce the interim assessment of the variation report as Deliverable No. 2
Chaired by Rick Potter (Health Services Advisory Group)
Facilitated by Harvey Shrednick (ASU-CABIT)
Legal Working Group (LWG).The LWG will assess applicable privacy and security laws, regulations, court cases, and other legal documents to identify legal sources of barriers to interoperable EHR. The group will be tasked with reviewing the barriers uncovered in business policies assessment conducted by the VWG and mapping those barriers to applicable state privacy and security laws. Members of the LWG will also work with the Solutions Working Group and the Implementation Planning Working Group (defined below) to ensure that laws are accurately and consistently interpreted throughout the process of solutions formulation, planning and implementation. The LWG will identify additional challenges in Federal and State statutes and regulations which the Solutions and Implementation Group will also consider.
Chaired by Kristen Rosati (Coppersmith Gordon Schermer Owens & Nelson PLC
Facilitated by Bill Pike (Carondelet Health Network)
Solutions and Implementation Working Group (SWG & IPWG): The duties of the SWG will include reviewing the assessment of variation of state laws and business policies identified as barriers by the VWG and formulating preliminary solutions to the barriers. The SWG will address Task 2 of the RFP and prepare the Interim Report of Potential Solutions and the Interim Analysis of Solutions, defined as Deliverable No. 3.
Additionally, this working group will review the interim analysis of solutions and propose preliminary implementation plans to develop a set of recommended policies that are consistent with Arizona laws. The group will also recommend any legislative or regulatory change necessary to reduce state law barriers to e-health data exchange.
Chaired by David Engelthaler (Department of Health Services)
Facilitated by Raghu Santanam (ASU-CABIT)
Education Working Group (EWG): This working group is expected to conduct outreach and educational sessions about the privacy and security issues involved in e-health data exchange, and the template policies and procedures drafted by the Solutions and Implementation Working Groups. This EWG also will direct outreach activities to other e-health exchange projects in the State to collaborate on regional and national educational efforts as needed.
Chaired by Anne Winter (Governor's Office)
Facilitated by Ajay Vinze (ASU-CABIT)
Milestones
Date: July 21, 2006
Event Name: AzHISPC Variations Working Group Meeting
Date: August 2, 2006
Event Name: AzHISPC Legal Working Group Meeting
