National Initiatives

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology was created by Presidential Executive Order in 2004 and charged with leading in the development of a National Health Information Network (NHIN).  The overall goal is to for most all Americans to have access to an interoperable electronic medical record by 2014. 

The federal Health Care & American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) enacted by Congress in 2009 had several significant provisions to advance this national agenda.  Provisions included:

• $2 billion in discretionary funds for grants and loans for technical assistance for providers in converting to electronic records, to states for planning and provider loan programs, to educational institutions for workforce training and curriculum development, and to other institutions for new technology research.
• Nearly $30 billion in Medicare and Medicaid financial incentives for hospital and physician conversion to electronic medical records.
• New Policies & Standards to expand HIPAA to include health information technology vendors as business associates and establish more stringent breach notification requirements and penalties.

More information about the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is available at http://healthit.hhs.gov/

Several other national offices, commissions and public private collaboratives play key roles in shaping NHIN.  Information on these efforts is available at http://nyehealth.org/links