New Mexico will be awarded $7 million in federal funds for its statewide health information exchange (HIE), having met all the requirements for strategic and operational planning.
While several states have secured ARRA planning funding, New Mexico is the first state to have executed on its plan to meet criteria set by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and receive approval for implementation funds, according to HIE officials.
The $7 million grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes it possible for the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC) to accelerate its plan to serve two million patients statewide.
NMHIC has more than one million unique patients in its Master Person Index, with access to patient record information from more than 10 hospitals, two major medical groups, and two major laboratories.
"To develop the plan for New Mexico, the NMHIC team went through a rigorous process, evaluating the HIE's strengths and its limitations," said Maggie Gunter, president of LCF Research, which operates NMHIC.
The network mostly is powered by Centergy Data Exchange Services from MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics.
NMHIC plans to expand the network to include two million unique patients. Expansion is planned in phases, with the first phase to launch this month and all phases scheduled for completion by 2013.
Several New Mexico healthcare providers are already participating in the NMHIC project, including Presbyterian Healthcare Services, TriCore Reference Laboratory, Holy Cross Hospital, Lovelace Health System, ABQ Health Partners, SED Labs, CHRISTUS St. Vincent Hospital and Albuquerque Ambulance.
"As states work to develop HIEs that will drive better patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare, each is challenged to answer the needs of its own unique healthcare landscape," said Richard Mahoney, president of MedPlus and vice president of healthcare information solutions at Quest Diagnostics. "New Mexico has emerged as a leading example in HIE development, as a state that set out to precisely understand and address its healthcare system's strengths and needs."