The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has established a governance panel to make recommendations about establishing formal rules for organizations participating in the Nationwide Health Information Network, Government Health IT reports.
Background
The 2009 HITECH Act -- part of the economic stimulus package -- called for an official system for NHIN governance (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 8/13).
Until the system of governance is enacted, organizations that do not have an existing grant or contract with the federal government cannot take part in the NHIN Exchange. The NHIN Exchange is a group of federal health care agencies and their contractors that exchange health data through the NHIN (iHealthBeat, 8/11).
Tasks for the New Panel
According to ONC, the new governance panel will:
- Ease legal and policy barriers for large and small organizations to use the NHIN; and
- Host forums with the health IT community to discuss what to include in the formal rulemaking process.
The first meeting of the new panel is scheduled for Sept. 3 (Government Health IT, 8/13).